By Bhim Singh
 
New Delhi, Sep 29: Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh received thunderous applause of the world leaders at the UN Assembly Hall on 24th September, 2011 when he declared India’s unequivocal support for a “sovereign, independent, viable and united state of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital.” It was, indeed, the most inspiring announcement by the Indian prime Minister on the floor of the UN for the Arab and Muslim Nations that literally challenged the stand taken by the US President Obama a couple of days ago from the UN theatre asking Palestinians to negotiate with Israel. He took a ‘U’ turn in the last minutes of his speech, on the statehood saying the UN Resolutions shall not solve the problem. Obama was suggesting negotiated settlement between wolf and a lamb. Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahoo, following the US Guideline, also challenged the UN capacity or ability to seek a solution to the problem, who failed to appreciate that it was the UN that gave birth to a non-existent ‘Israel’ in 1947 under its Resolution No.181. Israeli Prime Minister’s accusation the UN was unacceptable. He said, “Automatic majorities can decide anything in the UN.” “They can decide that the sun sets in the west or rises in the West.” Netanyahoo’s outright reject of the UN resolutions slashing a warning that they cannot achieve peace was unfortunate.

On the other hand Palestine President Mehmood Abbas was given standing ovation by 194 Member House when he rose to address them seeking their support for the full membership of the UN. Demanded complete cessation of Israeli settlement activities in Palestine which has been persistent stand of PLO from the beginning. Abbas, taking a cue from his predecessor, Yasir Arafat made a compassionate appeal to the World leaders seeking their support for the establishment of Sovereign State of Palestine. He rejected Vatican type of membership of the UN as was proposed by France President Sarkozy. Palestinians all over Palestine celebrated ‘Abbas’ speech as their victory day. The speech of Abbas was hailed by the Arabs as if it was Arafat voice.            

The Zionist lobby in the US has been dominating the political scenario in the Middle-East ever since they managed to plant the state of Israel’ in 1947 by partitioning Palestine, the land of the Prophets in utter violations of the fundamental principles on which the UN body was founded. The US President, Barack Hussein Obama, on the floor of the General Assembly of the United Nations on the opening day of the 2011 Session refused to accept the demand for statehood to Palestine declaring, “Ultimately, it is the Israelis and the Palestinians who must live side by side. Ultimately, it is the Israelis and the Palestinians--not us--who must reach agreement on the issues that divide them; on borders and on security, on refugees and Jerusalem.” The US President failed to mention the core issue of Israeli settlement in Jerusalem and Palestine. Naturally, he has been under a heavy pressure of Zionist pressure on the eve of Presidential election.

The Zionist lobby in US is the most powerful opinion making agency. 75% of the print and electronic media in the US is handled by the Jewish community and about the same percentage of the economy of the US is controlled by them. Nearly one-third members in the House of Commons in UK belong to the Jewish community. Their hatred towards Arab Muslims has been witnessed by history since centuries.
Obama’s comparison of the situation in Palestine with Northern Ireland, Sudan etc. showed his ‘internal compulsion’. He, perhaps, intended to please the Zionist hardliners in the US. His neo jurisprudence to the Chemistry of the Middle East suggesting the parties settle their issue between themselves has convinced none except the author of this proposition. His Foreign Secretary Mrs. Hillary Clinton had been advocating the cause of the ‘Statehood of Palestine’. President Mr. Bill Clinton was the foremost actor of the Oslo Accord which was signed in his presence on 13th September, 1993 in Washington. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the PLO Chief, Yasir Arafat shook hands for the first time in history on that day. It was agreed to establish the State of Palestine as a Sovereign Nation by 1998. Yasir Arafat must have annoyed many of the supporters and members of his team by signing the Oslo Accord accepting the existence of Israel as a State. He daringly renounced all kinds of violence. Israel on the other hand accepted PLO as the sole representative of the people of Palestine to the disappointment of a sizeable section of the Israelis led by the Zionist lobby operating in Washington and New York resulting into the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a fanatic Jew in November, 1995. He died the way Mahatma Gandhi was killed or Ibrahim Lincoln was stabbed.

It was the Labour Party in Israel under the leadership of Ehud Barack which repaved a way towards full settlement of the issue with Yasir Arafat in 1999. ‘Two-State’ proposition has been accepted. PLO agreed for Pre-1967 borders losing a major chunk of its territories it was assured under Resolution 181 by the Security Council.

The Oslo Accord made a commitment that all the issues including those of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, Israeli settlements, security of both the States and the final determination of borders should be resolved within 5 years from the date of the signing the Accord in 1993. Yasir Arafat returned to ‘Gaza’ as the President of the National Palestine Authority. This author visited Gaza twice in a Royal Jordanian aircraft via Amman. The situation took an unfortunate turn when Hamas managed to exploit the failures of the Oslo Accord. The internal situation forced Arafat to change the headquarters of the Palestine Authority from Gaza to Ram Allah in the West bank. His condition was worse than that of Zaffar Shah’s jail in Rangoon by the British. His movements were suppressed and communication broken. This author managed to meet him in Ram Allah twice till he was completely shut in his official house which was blasted by Israeli bombing. Only two rooms in the first floor were left unharmed where he lived till Nov 2004 in the last lonely days of his life.

 President Obama has given a neo interpretation to the Oslo Accord, 1993 which suited the hawkish Zionist lobby for ‘another negotiated settlement’ for the establishment of the Independent State of Palestine ignoring the history of negotiations spanning a decade, ranging from first negotiation at the 1949 Armistic Agreements to the Madrid Conference in 1991 and so on. Combinations and permutations in the Middle East changed after the collapse of the USSR followed by the US-led invasion of Iraq in 1991 which left Yasir Arafat isolated in home and abroad in a unipolar world. President George H.W. Bush’s ‘New World Order’, which loudly claimed that “the nations of the world, East and West, North and South, could prosper and live in harmony,” changed the climate against the Palestinians too. Yasir Arafat too realized, “the loss of its most important diplomatic patrons, due to the demise of the Soviet Union.” Another factor which pushed the PLO to the walls was the fallout from the Gulf War because Arafat had taken a pro-Iraqi stand during the war, Saudi Arabia and other tiny Gulf States cut off financial aid to the PLO.”  Arafat was compelled to shake hands with echelons of the White House. Naturally, he had to shake hands with Israel’s Yitzhak Rabin too. The old resolutions passed by the Security Council namely 242, 338 and the rest were dumped by Israel into the dustbin of time. Though, there was a mild reference to these resolutions that were taken as an integral part of the whole peace process which had been initiated in 1996 for granting Statehood to Palestine. India too gave full hearted and strategic support at all platforms to the PLO and its leader Yasir Arafat in his mission to establish a state of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital. Unfortunately, the resolutions 242, 338 of the Security Council directing Israel to vacate all Arab territories and share Jerusalem as a common capital city remained a distant dream. Israel has not cared to implement the UN resolutions till date. Israel on the other hand has fortified its control in the entire area of Golan Heights of Syria, Jerusalem and other areas, enforcing new settlements of the Jews from Poland, Ethiopia and other states, including India, on Palestinian land in utter violation of the UN resolutions dumped in the dustbins of the UN since 1947. This author visited Golan Heights in 1992 and made a documentary film for Doordarshan (Television of India) showing Israel’s illegal settlements in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and in the Syrian Territory. Mr. Netanyahoo boldly admitted on camera that “Israel shall not return Golan Heights to Syria, UN or no UN”. Syrian unrest has been attributed to the Mossad of Israel. Naturally, it helped divert the attention of the world from the issue of occupation of a major strategic territory of Syrian Territory by Israel since 1967, in spite of the unanimous resolutions of the Security Council asking Israel to vacate the lands.

Undoubtedly, the Jewish community had faced the most horrifying treatment in Germany in WW-II and their situation attracted sympathy everywhere in the East and the West. Yet the Palestinians have faced no less brutal treatment at the hands of Israel since 1947. The Zionist (Basel) Zionist Congress declaration of 1894 seeking homeland for the Jews had never named Palestine as their homeland. The Balfour Declaration of the British government in 1917 promising referendum in Palestine in return to the Arab support in the First World War. The Sharief of Mecca mobilized Arab support to the British fighting their war by making historic sacrifices. Britain (Allied Forces) betrayed the Arabs, first by distributing Arab countries among the victors as mandates. Syria, Lebanon, Algeria and Tunis went to France, Palestine and Jordan to England. Britain, instead of holding a referendum to determine the will of the people, handed over Palestine to the United Nations in 1946. This was another betrayal. The United Nations, in violation of its Charter, committed a blunder by dissecting Palestine only to create the State of Israel to appease the Zionist lobby. The United Nations had neither jurisdiction nor any competence within the meaning and scope of the Charter of the UN to divide an existing country thus threatening international peace and security. The Charter of United Nations stands for maintaining international peace and security and not disturbing peace and security. The five big powers were interested in appeasing the Jewish lobby in their respective countries. The USSR led by Stalin had the same problem. He too wanted to expose Germany which was held guilty for the brutal treatment given to the Jews. Stalin also had a wrong notion that about Jewish community as he felt that they might be able to mobilize the new ethos of socialist revolution in the Arab countries ruled by the Sheikhs, the Sultans, the Kings and the like. He too wanted to buy sympathy of the Russian Jews to divert their anger he had earned because of the treatment meted out to Trotsky. China on the other hand was represented by Chankya Shekh, dictator of Formosa who was literally a ‘little tool’ of the USA. That was the situation that led to the partition of Palestine. India, Iran and Yugoslavia had opposed the partition plan. That did not matter in mathematical terms for clearing a Security Council Resolution.

India’s role right since thirties has been highly objective and farsighted. In 1936, Mahatma Gandhi gave a call to the world saying that, “as England belongs to the England, France to the French similarly Palestine belongs to the Palestinians.” Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s government was the first non-Islamic country to recognize PLO in 1975 as sole representative of the Palestinians. India again was the first country to accord diplomatic recognition to PLO in 1988. The important factor is that today India has shown its maturity, wisdom and courage again when Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh Prime Minister of India challenged the US President on the issue, who had opposed statehood for Palestine only 24 hours before in his (Obama) speech at the UN. Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh declared India’s support for the establishment of Sovereign State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its Capital knowing well the consequential effect of the veto power that the US may use. Dr. Manmohan Singh has demonstrated both wisdom and courage in conveying India’s message clear and loud to Palestine and Israel and to the rest of the world in the interest of peace and development. This was the mandate of SC Resolutions 242, 338 and rest since 1967. Arafat in his last days had made a solemn commitment of peaceful co-existence with Israel renouncing violence. He was committed to establishing a secular, democratic sovereign state of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital. Obama, the youthful and shining the US President may reconsider Zionists sponsored jurisprudence and support the Palestinians in the interest of world peace and human dignity so that Israel and Palestine may coexist in peace and dignity in the 21st century.