Jefferson Corner

Sitting at home in Tangier on a nice cool day, I just finished watching an A&E documentary on Pol Pot the Khamer Rouge leader who inspired the very powerful movie the “Killing Field”.
During his rule of few years, Pol Pot and his army killed more than 2 million Cambodians and was perhaps one of the most ruthless totalitarians dictators during the last century joining Hitler, Stalin, Moe Tse-Tung, and Saddam as killers and murders of nations.
The interesting thing about Pol Pot is his formative years in France where he joined the Communist Party during its hay days, and where he thought he can restore the glorious past of Cambodia by destroying its present and starting over reclaiming eight centuries of glories. Pol Pot wanted to create a Utopia and engaged in massive and systemic killing fields.
The killing fields of Cambodia, like the killing fields of Iraq were triggered by a Republican president and his secretary of state. Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger triggered the killing field with their decision to start bombing claimed Communist Vietnamese military basis on the border with Vietnam.
While Henry Kissinger was the father of the killing fields of Vietnam and Cambodia, it was quite a surprise to see Secretary George Schultz visiting and meeting with Pol Pot after he successfully killed over 2 million people. The same can be said of Ronald Reagan who sent his defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld to Iraq to give Saddam Hussain the assurance of support few days after the world discovered that Saddam Hussien and his army gassed, killed and murdered tens of thousands of Kurds with arms and chemical weapons supplied by the western alliance of the “more than willing” including Germany, and the UK in addition to the US and France.
It seems wherever there is a dictator or a killer and a murder there is lurking in the background a Republican president and a secretary of state.
Supporting dictatorship and totalitarian rulers is the mark of Republican administrations and this includes supports of ruthless dictatorships like Suharto of Indonedia, Pinochet of Chile, Marcos of the Philippines, Samoza of Nicaragua, Noriega of Panama, the Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussain of Iraq, Samuel Doe of Liberia, Moboto of Zaire, Ceausescu of Romania among others.
When Pol Pot was chased out of Nom Penh by the invading Vietnamese communists, he asked one of his closets friends how the people were doing in the country side, his friend told him” they stopped singing” and so it is true with tens of millions of people who stopped signing because the US Republican administrations supported killers and murderers.
While it is true that Republican administrations could never resist falling in love with a dictators, Stalin killed directly or indirectly more than 35 million n forced relocations of people within the former Soviet Union. Hitler killed more than 6 million Jews and god know how many more, Moe Tse-Tung of China with his Cultural Revolution killed more than 20 millions during the upheaval of those days. The sad thing is that for the most part, killer dictators hardly ever come up before any tribunal. The late Milosevic died while waiting for his trial to conclude. He was responsible for the murder of hundreds of thousands of Bosnian Muslims and Catholic Croats. African dictators who where always friend of the US and the West never stood trial for the murder of tens of millions of their own people. Samuel Doe, the sergeant who tied up the entire government of Liberia to palm trees on the beach and shot them in cold bloood was soon welcomed to the White House because he decided to restore diplomatic relationship with Israel and was awarded $ 500 millions in aids for his decision to break ranks with other African nations who cut diplomatic relationship with Israel after the 73 war. Killer dictatorship does not speak well of the US foreign policy and does not speak well of so many Republican administrations.

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At the personal invitation of King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia the Palestinian warring factions of Hamas and Fatah signed a “peace agreement” in the Holy City of Mecca promising to form a “Unity Government” within one week and putting an end to the killing and murder that both organizations engaged in for the last several week.
The Palestinians have to remember that the Iraqis and the Afghans also signed a peace deals in Mecca only to return home and start killing and murdering each other again. I hope and all Palestinians hope that Hamas and Fatah will never ever engaged in any further acts of killing and murder again. While one has to be optimistic, there are certain leaderships within both organizations that have a lot to lose from any peace deal and stand to lose among their community of thugs.
The problem as I see it now with the daily announcement and with the stupid and unnecessary appearance of the many Hamas speakers who continue to make recognition of the State of Israel as the central issue of the Mecca accord, when there are other important issues to deal wit. Perhaps these people need to shut up and take few days off and give us a break from seeing and listening to many spokesmen crowding the air waives. Let us give this peace deal a chance and let the new government form first, announce its policies and programs and then these guys get their moment of glory before the TV cameras.
I read the agreement and yes, it is clear about ending the fighting and forming a unity government and yes, it does address the issues of recognizing and abiding by international agreements signed by the Palestinians.
One would think the new unity government take the opportunity of the support given by the Saudis and especially by both King Abdallah and Crown Prince Sultan to announce full support and commitment to King Abdallah’s Peace Plan announced in Beirut few years ago, and should seek funding from the Arab Gulf States and organize one hell of PR campaign inside Israel to gather support for the Arab Peace Plan, and wage an active campaign within the American Jewish community for such a peace plan given the fact that the US Jewish community always stood in the way of peace between Israel and the Arabs, for its own selfish interest of losing control over US Congress and lose it undue influence over America’s foreign policy.
Never understood why the Arabs and especially the Palestinians shied away from waging a peace campaign toward Israel. It certainly makes lots of sense and makes more sense than the stupid and senseless rockets fired from Gaza and certainly it is more effective than any suicide bombing and the killing of innocent people in cafes and restaurants in Tel-Aviv. I advocated this peace campaign soon after the conclusion of the Arab Summit Conference announcing the Arab Peace Plan with calls of putting some $ 50 millions toward this campaign.
The Palestinians more than ever need to have a vision for their own state and need to articulate this vision through actions and not words and need to prove to themselves that they have what it takes to build a modern nation- state where democracy and votes counts and where guns and militias have no place and where corruptions and incompetence are things of the past. Moreover, it is time for a massive and collective retirement of all those who served at one time or another with the late Yasser Arafat. They have proved, without any exception they are simply unfit to lead in liberation, are too incompetent to build a modern state and they have no vision for the future. 40 years of the same old people, the same old message, the same simple mind is just too much to take any more.
Reforming the PLO and dividing the cake like old times is no longer acceptable and we, in the Diaspora should not accept such a proposal, where those with few useless guns and no brains make all of the decisions. Of course it is time for the Palestinians in the Diaspora to step forward, make their voice counts and challenge those who have lead the Palestinian people from one disaster to another for the last 50 years. It is time for the Palestinians in the Diaspora to insist on having an independent voice separate from the PLO and insist on having an independent seat at the table in any future negotiations with Israel. There is so much talent outside of Palestine that it will be a crime for the Palestinians leadership under occupation not to make good use of and it will be a crime for the Diaspora Palestinians to leave their faith with the kind of leadership that we have seen for the last 50 years.

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Ever since Israel took total control of East Jerusalem and it declared annexations as the “eternal capital of the Jewish state, of course in total violations of international law, Israel with active and generous financial support from the American Jewish community began a very active and well organized campaign of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Jerusalem.
Over the years, Israel not only tore down the wall that separated West Jerusalem from East Jerusalem, before the 67 War, but began to build a new wall of Jewish settlements chocking and strangling the Arab city of Jerusalem and putting in place laws, remnant of Nazi Germany, that makes it almost impossible for the Arab residence to stay and live in East Jerusalem. Introducing residency restrictions that make it almost impossible for any Arab (Muslim or Christian) to continue to have residency in Jerusalem.
The American Jewish community through its active political and financial support of the Israeli Settlers movement became actively engaged in committing large scale acts of fraud buying and selling Arab properties in the city, making sure that Jews form the majority of the city residence and of course illegally depriving the Arabs of their rights to their properties within the city, of course not to mention using guns and bullets to get rid of Arab resident of the city. Zionism was intent on changing the entire demographic of the city, making sure the Arabs have a hard time staying.
Moreover, the Israel entire legal system from land and property registration up to the Israeli Supreme Court and the Knesset allowed and permitted to the Israeli government to commit acts of outright theft of Arab properties, with the most active individual is Nathan Sharansky, that Russian immigrant whose campaign to ethnically cleanse the city of its Arabs earned him the most distinguished honor American could bestow on any citizen. George W. Bush in recognition of Sharansky’s acts and support of apartheid and ethnic cleansing awarded him the Congressional Medal of Freedom.
Many rich and well influential American Jews became actively engaged in large scale fraud providing hundreds of millions of dollars to criminal settlers allow them through fraud and guns to take over Palestinian properties in Jerusalem and of course in Hebron.
Israel at the moment is continuing what it has been doing for the last 40 years of changing the nature of the cit buy destroying entire Arab neighborhoods and substituting Jewish neighborhoods. One can understand the renovation of the old Jewish quarter within the old city, but making sure that it changes the entire ethnic make up of the city. Israel as not to be satisfied with stealing so many Arab properties within West Jerusalem but is making sure it continue its theft well into the 21st century
As if stealing Arab property is not enough for Israel, and under the pretext of keeping Israel safe from Palestinian suicide bombers and terrorists, continue to build a new wall. Unlike any other wall in the world, The Israeli Apartheid Wall, put the Berlin Wall built by the communist into shame. It snakes through the Arab city, dividing families from their neighbors, and diving Arab families from their properties and business, dividing Arab school children from their schools and most important depriving Arabs of their properties. The Israeli Apartheid Wall, supported by the US Administration and members of Congress, is made up in some areas 500 meters deep of concrete and barbed wires with the concrete supplied by senior officers of the Palestinian Authority. Within the Arab city, the Wall is some 8 meters ( 23 feet high) tall with Arab families forced to travel miles and go through many check points when they can simply walk over in minutes to their schools and businesses.
More dangerous than the Wall, is the fact that Israel is making it an official policy of depriving Arab Muslims and Christians of the right to worship freely in their holy places. Every week and every day, Israel deploys its border guards at the entrance of the city making it almost impossible for any Palestinians to have free access to the holy places.We all want a united and open Jerusalem, a Jerusalem for All We want a Jerusalem that is Jewish, a Jerusalem that is Muslim, a Jerusalem that is Christian, a Jerusalem that is international, but we do not want nor accept a Zionist Jerusalem. However Israel over the last 40 years have proven that it is unfit, unqualified and does not deserve the moral and legal rights to manage an open city for the benefits of Jews, Christians and Muslims. Israel and its supporters within the US administration, Congress and within large circles of the American Jewish community is too racists and too full of hate to have total sovereignty over such a holy city like Jerusalem

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These days we here so much talk of “international community” whether it is President George Bush, Secretary Rice, Prime Minister Blair or Chancellor Merkel, all speak of the “international community” whether they are talking about Iran’s nuclear programs, or Hamas government. These leaders speak as if they have been appointed and elected to speak for the rest of the world. The “international community” they speak about does not include countries in Africa, Asia or the Middle East; even it does not include some countries in Europe, let alone all of Latin and Central America. This if any, shows the arrogance of these leaders.
We must remember few years, the “international community” is the one that gave the Shah of Iran, all the weapons he needed and more to appoint himself as the guardian and ruler of the Arabian Gulf, it is the same “international community” that gave Saddam Hussain, all the weapons he needed including weapons of mass destructions which he put to effective use against his own people and that of Iran. It is the same “international community” that supported the wars in Sudan, Angola, Central America and supported dictatorships like Suharto of Indonesia. When we speak of the “international community” we must nit forgot that it is the one that supported and supplied Israel with its nuclear weapons program, that supported Israel’s twenty years occupation of south Lebanon and it is the same community that supports one of the longest and most criminal military occupations in modern time, that of Israel and its policy of ethnic cleansing and property theft inn the name of G-d and the jailing of over 350,000 Palestinians at one time or another.
One would and can accept the notion of an “international community” if this community has the moral standing and consistency and has track records of supporting freedoms and democracies throughout the world. The problem with this international community is it total silence on all the crimes committed by its proxies like Saddam Hussain, the Shah of Iran, and General Suharto and consistently supported all the prime ministers of Israel as they waged their relentless wars of killing, murdering Palestinians and the ethnic cleansing that forms the basic ideology of Jewish Zionism.
Since no one appointed the US, the UK or Germany as guardians of international rights these particular countries do not qualify to speak for the world community, a country like the US supported both Saddam Hussain and the Shah of Iran, and country like England that gave the Balfour Declaration depriving Palestinians of their natural rights to their homes and land and a country like German that put more than 6 millions Jews in death and gas chambers. It is very difficult to see how such countries with poor if not absent moral standing can speak of the “international community”. It is only when these countries can translate their moral claims to real practice can the rest of the international community accepting such leadership. Until then, please let s not hear again, the words “international community” from countries like the US, England ad Germany.

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