On October 7, Arabs marked the first anniversary of the Gaza war, orchestrated by Netanyahu, the man who calls resistance movements 'terrorism' and who displayed two maps labelled 'The Blessing' and 'The Curse' at the UN general assembly.
I wonder how Arab delegates would’ve reacted if they hadn’t walked away. Maybe with an incredulous laughter like mine. At present, it’s crucial to consider the Palestinian point of view on this war as was presented by Mustafa Barghouti, General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI), in the Future of Media and Communication Forum organised by the Centre for Protection and Freedom of Journalists in Jordan, on September 29.
In his nine-minute speech available on Roya News YouTube channel, Barghouti started by saying that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) had been deluded by the idea of reaching a middle ground with the Israelis and by imagining that the US could act as mediator, when in fact it’s an accomplice to the Israelis.
The US had provided Israel with 50 tonnes of explosives since the start of the war. The Israelis used 83,000 tonnes of explosives in Gaza to date, which exceeds the power of the four atomic bombs used in WWII (that’s 32 kgs of explosives for every individual in the Gaza Strip).
He added that the Israelis are considering the invasion of Lebanon (which already happened) and Syria while threatening the national security of Egypt and Jordan. However, the reason for the genocide that’s happening in Gaza is Israel’s ambition to seize the Levant gas field - which includes the shores of Lebanon and Syria - to construct the Ben-Gurion Canal which would run between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea to replace the Suez Canal.
While in France last year, Israel’s Finance Minister Smotrich audaciously displayed a map of Greater Israel that includes the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights, Jordan, and parts of Saudi and Syria.
Barghouti wondered then why Arab nations are blind when the truth is staring them in the face. Unfortunately, Arabs had failed to emphasise to the US and the West that their interests in the region are linked to their political stance towards the Palestinian cause, and because of that Arab countries were undermined.
Gaza war included three war crimes that the world went silent about genocide, sanctions and ethnic cleansing. But what’s the real goal of Israel? It’s the extermination of any resistance movement - Arab or Palestinian - that goes against their Zionist plans of colonisation and settlement; and not border disputes as understood by many.
Unfortunately, various countries are deluded by the idea of the two-state solution when Israel wants the whole of Palestine and Jordan. During this war, it became clear that countries are driven by interest and not principles; ideologies are shaped to serve economic and other gains.
If it wasn’t for the US and other Western countries’ protection of Israel, we would’ve never witnessed the Israelis’ animosity, arrogance and bravado. Unfortunately, the Arab world is divided into countries that are against what Israel does and others that normalised relations with Israel.
Nevertheless, what unites the two is the support of their nations for the Palestinian cause. He ended the speech with a praise for the Palestinian and Lebanese journalists’ heroism in war coverage, as Israel had prohibited Western media from entering Gaza (except for one CNN reporter who was allowed to enter for three hours).
Israel had killed 176 journalists in this war, the highest number of deaths to be recorded. He also thanked Arab youth who through their social media accounts were able to expose Western media bias.
Rasha Al Raisi
The writer is the author of The World According to Bahja
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
