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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200212-breaking-with-washington-arabs-and-muslims-must-take-a-stand-for-palestine/">https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200212-breaking-with-washington-arabs-and-muslims-must-take-a-stand-for-palestine/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Breaking with Washington: Arabs and
Muslims must take a stand for Palestine</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Ramzy Baroud - February 12,
2020<br>
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<p>A negotiated solution to the ‘Palestinian-Israeli
conflict’, at least the way envisaged by successive US
administrations, has failed. Now, Palestinians and their
allies would have to explore a whole new path of
liberation that does not go through Washington.</p>
<p>It is easy to place all the blame on the current US
administration, setting apart dodgy characters such as
the President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as the man
who has single-handedly diminished any real chances for
a just peace in Palestine and Israel.</p>
<p>The truth, however, greatly differs from conveniently
moulded assumptions. The US-championed ‘peace process’
has been in a hiatus since the <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/16/the-real-reason-the-israel-palestine-peace-process-always-fails"
target="_blank">last negotiations</a> in 2014. For
years prior to the announcement of Donald Trump’s
‘Middle East Plan’ on January 28, Israel did everything
in its power to ensure Palestinians can never have a
state of their own. Not only did Israeli officials <a
href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-week-israel-says-yes-to-annexing-the-west-bank-consequences-be-damned/"
target="_blank">openly speak</a> of their desire to
illegally annex much of the occupied territories, but
the Israeli government has taken numerous <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/on-campaign-trail-netanyahu-vows-to-annex-west-bank-settlements--again/2019/09/01/2c133f4c-cc96-11e9-87fa-8501a456c003_story.html"
target="_blank">steps</a> to ensure the constant
expansion of illegal Jewish settlements.</p>
<p>One would have to be politically naive and morally
blind to assume that the Israeli government, at any
point in the past, had an iota of interest in a just
peace that would guarantee the Palestinian people a
minimum amount of dignity, freedom and justice.</p>
<p>Yet, everyone has played along: Israel complained that
it has no peace partner while simultaneously entrenching
its military occupation and expanding its colonial
regime; the Palestinian Authority (PA) of President
Mahmoud Abbas ceaselessly waved empty threats, which
ultimately amounted to nothing; the Americans urged both
parties to return to ‘unconditional negotiations’, all
the while funding, to the <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/14/world/middleeast/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-military-aid.html"
target="_blank">amount</a> of $3.8 billion, the
Israeli military and economy; the United Nations and the
European Union followed a predictable political script
that was seen as more ‘moderate’ than that of
Washington, yet failed to take a single meaningful
action to discourage Israel from further violations of
international law.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Arab League and the Organization of
Islamic Cooperation (OIC), who are arguably Palestine’s
more solid and consistent allies, remained marginal and,
by far, the least relevant of all parties. Their
occasional statements in support of Palestinians and
condemnation of the Israeli occupation became so
predictable and ineffectual. Aside from Abbas and his
Authority, ordinary Palestinians saw no value in verbal
support that hardly ever translated into tangible
action.</p>
<p>Somehow, this skewed paradigm sustained itself for many
years, partly because it suited everyone except the
Palestinian people, of course, whose subjugation and
humiliation by Israel carried on unhindered.</p>
<p>Presently, there are two different currents fighting to
define the situation in Palestine in the post-‘Deal of
the Century’ era.</p>
<p>First, Israel and the United States, who are keen to
translate the ‘Middle East plan’ into rapid and
irreversible action. They are eager to annex the illegal
settlements of the West Bank and the <a
href="https://www.jns.org/israelis-and-palestinians-consider-how-jordan-valley-annexation-plan-will-affect-them/"
target="_blank">Jordan Valley</a> (approximately 30%
of the total size of the West Bank). Moreover,
Washington would like to see its diligent, clandestine
efforts aimed at normalization between Arabs and Israel
translate into actual agreements and, eventually, full
diplomatic ties.</p>
<p>Second, the Palestinian Authority, the EU, the UN, the
Arab League and the OIC, want the ‘Deal of the Century’
<a
href="https://www.islamtimes.org/en/news/842634/european-union-rejects-us-one-sided-deal-of-the-century"
target="_blank">defeated</a>, but they have no
alternative path to follow. They insist on respect for
international law and remain die-hard supporters of the
<a
href="https://www.plenglish.com/index.php?o=rn&id=51875&SEO=a-two-state-solution-is-the-only-viable-one-for-palestine-says-un"
target="_blank">unfeasible</a> two-state paradigm, but
they have no actual strategy, let alone an enforcement
mechanism to make that happen.</p>
<p>The pro-PA camp reeks with contradictions, that are no
less obvious than that of Abbas’ Authority, which speaks
of ‘popular resistance’ while, jointly with Israel, is
suppressing any attempt aimed at challenging the Israeli
occupation.</p>
<p>A perfect example of the contradictions in this camp is
that only two days after the Arab League issued its <a
href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/backing-abbas-arab-league-rejects-trumps-middle-east-peace-plan/"
target="_blank">statement </a>rejecting the ‘Deal of
the Century’, the head of Sudan’s Sovereign Council,
Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, <a
href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/sudanese-leader-says-he-met-netanyahu-to-achieve-countrys-interests/"
target="_blank">met</a> with right-wing Israeli Prime
Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Uganda. Burhan is
hoping to swap normalization with Israel for <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/talk-sudan-israel-normalisation-200205145823074.html"
target="_blank">Washington’s favours</a>.</p>
<p>Another example is reflected in the behaviour of Abbas
himself, who, on February 1, <a
href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-abbas-speech-official-says-pa-has-not-halted-security-ties-with-israel/"
target="_blank">declared</a> that he would sever all
contacts with Israel, including the so-called security
coordination, the main pillar in the Oslo agreement,
which practically employs PA security forces in the
service of the Israeli occupation.</p>
<p><strong>Read: <a title="Palestine’s Mufti’s fatwa
prohibits working with US ‘peace deal’"
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200211-palestines-muftis-fatwa-prohibits-working-with-us-peace-deal/">Palestine’s
Mufti’s fatwa prohibits working with US ‘peace deal’</a></strong></p>
<p>This is not the first time that Abbas has resorted to
this lifeline, but he has never gone through with his
promises. We have no reason to believe that this time is
any different.</p>
<p>There is little hope that the pro-PA camp, as
exemplified in the current political structure, can
truly defeat the ‘Deal of the Century’.</p>
<p>The final statements resulting from the Arab League
summit in Cairo and the <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/oic-hold-emergency-meeting-trump-middle-east-plan-200203064919675.html"
target="_blank">OIC summit </a>in Jeddah on February
1 and 3 respectively, is a repeat of numerous past
conferences, where promises were made and condemnations
were levelled, with no follow-up nor any action.</p>
<p>If Arabs and Muslims are, indeed, sincere in their
desire to confront US-Israeli plotting, they ought to go
beyond this stifling pattern of impractical politics. It
is not enough to reject Washington’s stratagem and to
denounce Israeli action. They ought to muster enough
courage to turn their statements into an actual, unified
strategy, and their strategy into action, using all
means at their disposal.</p>
<p>Arab countries enjoy massive economic and political
leverage in Washington and throughout the world. What’s
the value of all of this leverage if not used in defence
of Palestine and her people?</p>
<p>Washington and Tel Aviv are counting on the fact that
anger at the ‘Deal of the Century’ among Arabs and
Muslims will eventually peter out, exactly as <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/10/trump-jerusalem-arab-league-dangerous-violation-international-law"
target="_blank">happened</a> after Trump recognized
all of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moving his
country’s embassy there in May 2018.</p>
<p>If Arabs and Muslims fail Palestine again, then, once
more, the Palestinian people will find themselves alone
in this desperate fight, which they have no other
alternative but to undergo. And when Palestinians rise,
as they surely will, their uprising will challenge not
just Israel but the entire regional and international
apparatus that allowed the Israeli occupation to go
unchallenged for so many years.</p>
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