Palestine Unleashed: How to Confront Annexation and ‘Deal of the Century’
- Palestine Unleashed: How to Confront Annexation and ‘Deal of the Century’
by , https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/
Just because the Donald Trump administration has declared international law null and void regarding the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees, the status of occupied East Jerusalem or the illegality of Jewish colonies in the occupied territories, does not mean that Israel has won and Palestinians have lost.
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To be more specific, those who have indeed lost are those who gave Washington and its allies the power to shape the future of Palestine and, in fact, the whole of the Middle East, in a way that is consistent with the skewed US foreign policy, namely, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and other quisling Arab leaderships.
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Those of us who have always understood that Washington and Tel Aviv are two sides of the same coin, are hardly surprised by the so-called Deal of the Century. In fact, Trump’s ‘deal’ is but a continuation of the same dismal trajectory of blind US allegiance to Israel. Whether we call it the ‘Deal of the Century’, ‘US-sponsored peace process’, or ‘shuttle diplomacy’, they are all recycled brands of the same old product.
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But, fingers of blame cannot only point at Trump and Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Palestinians deserve much of the blame as well.
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Twenty-seven years ago, a group of Palestinian political elites broke away from national consensus, signing a unilateral deal with Israel that either conceded or relegated most Palestinian rights, including the status of Jerusalem, and the rights of Palestinian refugees.
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They argued then that Palestinian rights could be achieved through an incremental ‘peace process’, through tireless negotiations and ‘painful compromises’. Those who challenged the subsequent Oslo accords were shunned and branded as terrorists and radicals; they were imprisoned and, whenever convenient, even assassinated.
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Since then, the fate, status and legitimacy of the PA became intrinsically linked to the very Israeli military occupation it was meant to eradicate. The negotiations led to the enriching of the Israeli occupation which is now under the threat of being fully annexed by Israel. In the meantime, some Palestinians grew richer, and millions of Palestinians became even more desperate, isolated under a growing Israeli Apartheid in the West Bank or under a hermetic and deadly siege in Gaza.
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Nearly three decades later, the ‘Deal of the Century’ came to completely delegitimize the PA, itself set-up with American funds and a political mandate.
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Under these new circumstances, there is no logical reason why the PA should continue to exist, at least in its current form, as it played a major part in subjugating the Palestinian people, allowing Washington and Tel Aviv to achieve their political ends in Palestine without the slightest resistance.
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A few years ago, PA President, Mahmoud Abbas, referred to armed resistance in Gaza as ‘useless’ and a ‘mistake’. He purported to champion a different form of ‘resistance’ that would truly obtain Palestinian rights and grant the Palestinian people an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. The ‘Deal of the Century’ proved that it was Abbas, his Authority and whatever phony form of ‘resistance’ they employed, who was utterly and completely useless.
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9 … I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a [a]synagogue of Satan.