Palestinian Impotence, Israeli Insolence

Anyone who is acquainted with recent Palestinian circumstances is certainly aware of the deplorable and inexcusable reality that haunts more than 1.5 million people in the Gaza Strip. In conjunction to this horrific reality, Israeli constituents recently held their parliamentary elections, which unsurprisingly resulted in Benjamin Netanyahu coming on top with a victory as the Prime Minister of Israel.

This confronting nexus between two harsh realities, that of Israeli bellicosity versus Palestinian impotence and that of latent arrogance versus manifest defenselessness must surely be noted. It paves way and calls for a more practical change in direction for both sides. Ordinary Palestinians along with their Israeli counterparts need to once and for all come to realize and conclude together, that their incompetent leaders are the ones to be blamed for the current impasse.

Just last Wednesday, Benjamin Netanyahu addressed his constituents in fiery speech in which he talked about “economic peace”. As part of his predictable campaign ploy, he implicitly reassured us that Israel will not negotiate with Hamas, the official party that is responsible for representing the majority of Palestinians but instead Israel is willing to negotiate with Fatah.

This is indeed yet another provocation and insult to the Palestinians. Such arrant nonsense cannot and should not be tolerated because it only impedes the path that most Israelis and Palestinians desire, the path towards peace.


Israeli constituents cannot sit back and let this play, the need to act and self-integrate themselves in the political process is what is needed at this hour. Netanyahu cannot be given any more credibility than he had back when he served as a Prime Minister in the 90s. Likewise, Hamas must also tone down the harsh rhetoric that characterizes much of what they stand for.

Both sides must take the necessary steps forward and not let this opportunity go to waste. As noted by Roger Cohen in his weekly column in the New York Times, sooner or later Barack Obama will be briefed about what a 12 member council has called "Bipartisan statement on U.S. Middle East peacemaking". The Israeli leadership along with the Palestinian leadership cannot afford to be caught off-guard when the U.S. decides to intervene again.

In 1997, on behalf of the Palestinian people, the late professor Edward Said wrote for Al-Hayat:

We must accept the Jewish experience in all that it entails of horror and fear; but we must require that our experience be given no less attention, or on perhaps another plane of historical actuality. Who would want morally to equate mass extermination with mass dispossession? It would be foolish even to try.”

Here we are more than a decade later and professor Said’s ageless wisdom is more relevant than ever. Throughout his academic career his persistent calling for peace, reconciliation and bases for coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis is what ultimately stood out to me the most. Freedom and equality are both two universal rights for all people in this world, certainly for Palestinians and Israelis as well.