The World Disorder – Part 2

By Habib Siddiqui

At least 200 Palestinians have been killed since the Gaza protests began on March 30 of this year to demand the right of return to lands that Palestinian families fled or were driven from on Israel’s founding in 1948. The Zionist leaders have mastered the art of lying and deception. As they expand their illegitimacy over the Occupied Palestine and kill the native Palestinians mercilessly, they are mindful that their evil ploys to make the Holy Land ready for the emergence of ad-Dajjal still face uphill battles.  After all, Iran and Turkey remain as the last vestiges of resistance against the powerful apartheid state of Israel. So, the conspiracy goes on to destroy these two countries by hook or crook.

It was no accident that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on September 27, 2018 brought his dog-and-pony show once again to the United Nations General Assembly and advised the world that he knew of a secret site of Iran’s (non-existent) nuclear weapons facility. He urged the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to immediately rush to that site, discover the horrible weapons, and thus condemn Iran. Have not we seen enough of such charades from the arrogant leaders of the state of Israel that never signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in the last few decades?

We live at a time when the grip of demonic forces – thanks to the war criminals like Netanyahu and Trump – seems ever strong. With their deep connection with the military industrial complex, they want to bring about war through chaos, deception and lies while maintaining their python-like hold on the WMDs. Perhaps the IAEA should inspect Israel’s nuclear facilities. Would the rogue, apartheid state allow such inspection of their own sites?

Thanks to the currency manipulators and Trump’s threats, the Turkish Lira dropped by 40 percent since the beginning of the year. It did not matter that the Turkish government has only 28.5% debt as percentage of the GDP (compared to 236.4% for Japan and 82.3% for the USA, according to 2017 year-end Bloomberg report), and that the economy has been bullish for many years in a row with all the positive economic measures.

It is sad to see these days the obscene powers of the rich and powerful countries that could break the economy of any country by design despite all the fundamentals being at the right place. Any consumable product could be falsely declared as unhealthy to bring a country’s economy to its knees. Consider, e.g., the case of Malaysian palm oil, which is labelled as dangerous to health. Under the pretext of saving the habitat of animals, i.e., the jungles, even palm diesel is condemned.  Forgotten there are the facts that 60% of Malaysian landscape is forest (compared to 30% forest coverage in the world) and that such boycott is depriving hundreds of thousands of people from jobs and a decent life. Malaysia has been practicing sustainable forestry management for more than a century, long before it became fashionable.

It goes without saying that the world is in a state of turmoil - economically, socially and politically. The trade war between the USA and China, the two most powerful economies, is wreaking havoc and the rest of the world is feeling the pain.

Socially, new values challenging the concept of marriage and family, of moral codes, of respect, etc., are undermining the age-old family and moral values. Gender-based violence is at a new high making the lives of many difficult, let alone threatened.

Frustrated and marginalized, nihilism has become the new elixir for some confused young men and women. These neo-Kharijites are tying bombs to their bodies and blowing themselves up in crowded places to cause maximum casualty. Billions of dollars are spent every year to ensure security of the travelers, but terrorism has not abated an iota. Unless the root causes of terrorism are found and weeded out, and hearts and minds are won, we will only be wasting our time and money.

Consider in this case the Palestinian problem. In 1948, Palestinian land was seized to form the state of Israel. The Palestinians were massacred and forced to leave their ancestral land. They tried to fight a conventional war with help from sympathetic neighbors. The powerful friends of Israel ensured the failure of this attempt. More Palestinian land was seized in the 1967 war. And Israeli settlements continue to be built on more and more confiscated Palestinian land and the Palestinians are denied access to these settlements built on their land. The apartheid walls built around the illegal settlements have created new Bantustans for the Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories. Blocked on all sides, even access to the Mediterranean Sea, Gaza has been turned into the largest concentration camp in our time. Food and medicine carrying aid ships to the stranded Palestinians in Gaza were not only stopped from reaching the Gaza coast, these were also attacked in international waters by the Israelis killing aid workers.

The fight for justice has turned into an imbalanced war of the Palestinian David trying to fight the blood-thirsty Israeli Goliath with kites, catapults and stones. While their ineffective weapons don’t kill any Israeli, they continue to be shot with live bullets and arrested. Massive retaliations continue to be mounted by Israel, rocketing and bombing hospitals, schools and other buildings, killing innocent civilians including school children and hospital patients. Thousands are incarcerated. International laws are broken with full disregard to human lives and properties.

Despite all such criminal activities the powerful countries around the globe from the USA to India continue to reward the apartheid state of Israel. Ignoring the advice of many experts, the U.S. President Trump has even recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

In his speech on November 1974 at the UNGA, the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) leader Yasser Arafat said, “I came here Mr. President holding the gun of a revolutionary in one hand, and an olive branch in the other. Do not topple the olive branch from my hand, don’t make the olive branch fall from my hand.”

Forty-four years have passed since that memorable day in the UN, and still the Palestinians are without a state. They are denied the right to self-determination. They are waiting for the world, esp. the UNSC, to intervene on their behalf. Will they ever see justice?

In his speech at the UNGA, President Erdogan of Turkey warned: “The efforts of those, who do not raise their voices against the oppression of the Palestinians, to reduce the assistance for them, are only increasing the courage of the oppressors. Even if the whole world turns its back, we, as Turkey, will continue to be on the side of the oppressed Palestinians and to protect the historical and legal status of our first kiblah, Al-Quds.” He urged the international community to protect the legal and historical status of Jerusalem.

The idea of peace without justice is an illusion and is morally repugnant. Unless the Palestinians can return to reclaim their land and live as equal citizens warring against them will neither stop their legitimate aspirations nor stop terrorism. And as we have seen in recent decades, others (non-Palestinians and non-Arabs) are willing to become the Palestinian Spartacus who don’t mind dying for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

In this age of internet connectivity, truly, local problems no longer remain local. They draw supporters, even from faraway places, from concerned global citizens for a legitimate and yet neglected grievance. While such facts should deter any oppressor or usurper from committing its crime, the sad fact is that arrogance of power often blinds it from seeing what is so obvious!