Dear Supporter of Stopping the War in Gaza,
I come from there and I remember
Born as mortals are,
I have a motherAnd a house with many windows…
Mahmoud Darwish.
The war has stopped. Maybe it will stop for ever, maybe not.
But as I look around the political world, I see hope that change, positive change is being shared by adversaires and by enemies. Iran is looking forward to the new administration, Syria is waiting for Mr. Obama to act on his plan for the Middle East. Palestianians have chosen the road to peace since 1991 Madrid Accord. Today the Palestianians are paying the price of their strategic decision to accept peace and negogiate with Israel. The Palestianians are split between those who will always have a sign of hope in the future for a peaceful settlement, and those who argue that Israel will never give peace to Palestianians becuase it wants the land in West Bank and the water. The Palestianians have now accepted to live in a states in West Bank and Gaza, but they need to have their dignity and land kept in one peace. Here is the problem.
Israel wants peace, but only if Palestine is weak and injured. It does not want a prosperous Palestine. This has to change for fairness is the essence of peace. Israel has gone through a brutal war that hopefully will make it see that to live in Peace and Prospoerity it has to be "Just" and show fairness and justice to its human neighbours.
Israel can not bully people to agree with them. It has to respect the human lives of the Arabs and respect their dignity. It has to stop being an occupier and of other people land and start acting like a 21 st century democratic state that it claims it is. Arabs are not "Dust in the Wind".
We were living in Palestine for as long as there was Palestine, and to write Palestianians off as intruders or barbarians or second class citizens is to ensure war goes on forever. And Israel should know that war is not always going to be in its favor. So, hopefully Israel now works towards ringing the bells of peace rather than those of War.
What grasped my attention most in this war, was the almost full suport that Israeli majority population supported and rarely, if ever, protested the inhumane acts of its army. What I noticed is that Isareli support for thier soliders covered their eyes from the killing of the childern, women and old men. I saw a written comment on a blog Israeli comment that Palestianians are still alive becuase the Israeli Army allows them to live! I hope that this arrogance of Israeli society is replaced by humility and fairness, otherwise we will not see an end to the brutality of war and both sides will get pain, not one.
Sun Tszu the famous Chinese Strategist and War General said,
"Confront them with annihilation, and they will then survive; plunge them into a deadly situation, and they will then live. When people fall into danger, they are then able to strive for victory. "
For me, Gaza was the center of the world during these last three weeks. Every where I went people were disgusted about what was happening by the Israeli war machine and supportive of the Palestianian cause of living in peace.
I salute the brave women, childern of Gaza and the elderly men. You took the pressure of war and you survived, lived and you will see victory soon. You will live in a peacful land in dignity and your heads high. This is a promise from more than 3600 people from all around the world from all religions, Jews, Christians, Muslims, and every other believer in humanity.
As every one knows, Peace in the Middle East needs an active role from the United States. A role that is fair and balanced. Since mid 1960's, the United States, Under Johnson presidency, gave Israel full and unequivacal support in all its actions, war or peace. The view that Israel is threatened by its Arab nieghbours was used in 1960 until now. But it is time for the United States Policy Make to take the Israeli glasses off and put on a clean set of glasses that shows them the fair view of the Middle East. Muslims and Middle Eastern People are not barbrians out to get the West. We have our dreams of living in proposerity and in diginity and we want to build our land and our countries and we want to join the world with our art and culture. We can not be living like second class world citizens. Mr. Obama's administration will do humanity a great service if it can see with fair set of eyes and act on the facts not the spins of the Israeli Lobby.
What are we the Arabs of the Middle East going to do about changing our destiny? I would like to think that we start in looking t the big picture- the forest not the tree. I argue that the big picture is now blurry, but we can make it clear and sunny. Work with the civilizations of the west and east to show them that we are able to produce a viable soceity based on human rights and edcuation. China and India were able to make their enemies respect them and become thier polticial allies because they took their destiny and advanced their soceity by being true to their cultures.
Our cutlure repsects people, is generous, and believes in education and reading. Quran tells us to read, to get an education, to be generous, to be civil, to have a balanced view of the world and of others. Lets get back to basics. Lets start talking and arguing and debating in the conferences of the world, but lets build an economically viable society that can support women, and minorities and gives every citizen the right to acheive their dreams and goals. We will then be able to defend our rights against any one who claims that we are not worth the effort. Let us support each other and show the other civilizations what we can give to humanity in the 21st century. Peace and Prospoerity to the Middle East is in our hands.
J.F Kennedy said "We need men who can dream of things that never were. " Is Mr. Obama this man? For Sake of peace and prospoerity for the Palestianians and everyone one in the Middle East, let us think positive and say yes. I am realistic about Mr. Obama administration's abilities to make a difference here. But I am also hopeful that this man can bring a sense of fairness to the discussions that his administration will be having as they proceed to sponoser the process of peace. He seems to be a fair and intelligent man with a respect to people lives.
Being a member of this group was an honor for me. We started with one person, and we are now 3,759 members from 80 countries, from all religions believe in the rights of Palestianians to live in peace and support their right to have a prosperous future. It is not easy to say no to Israel war machine when you live in Israel, but many members from Israel joined the group and said no. I hope you can vote for the people who support peace not war in your coming elections. I was happy to see Americans question the war logic and ask me questions about the real story behind this war and the wars the preceded it. I make sure to try to share with those who asked me my information.
Last, I will go and see ways to help the childern in Gaza have some fun and give hope to those whose lively hood had be erased by the war. I look forward to seeing many of you on that road. Thank you for your support of the group. A special thanks goes to all who dedicated their profile picture of Peace Dove to the cause of stopping the war. We totalled 120 people and this was a good acheivement.
Do not forget to support UNRWA
http://www.un.org/unrwa/.
SincerelyAbbas
