When Will the Palestinian People's Nightmare End?

During the last two decades, when­ ever the US decided to invade a Muslim or Arab Muslim country, it started giving hopes to the Palestinians that the issue of separate state for them will be resolved. Before the senior Bush had invaded Iraq in 1990s in a bid to force Saddam Hussain to withdraw his forces from Kuwait, he had promised that Palestinian issue would be resolved after the objective was achieved. Similarly, George W Bush had also made a similar promise before it invaded and occupied Iraq, but no progress whatsoever made during the last four years.

There is a per­ception that the US is planning to attack Iran and that was the reason that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had recently visited the region. She had brought President Bush's message that he had decided to play an active role to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which she said was one of the top priorities of his administration, hi a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbass, she had said that an international peace conference is expected to be convened in Annapolis, Maryland. "We frankly have better things to do than invite the people to Annapolis for a photo op," she said. "The Israelis and the Palestinians are making most serious effort for years to resolve the conflict. Frankly, it's time for the establishment of a Palestinian state." Israel had been pushing for a vaguely worded document while the Palestinians wanted a detailed outline, complete with a timetable for establishing a Palestinian state.

Palestinians have, indeed, under­ gone the longest ordeal in the annals of history, and despite various UN resolutions and accords there seems to be not ending in sight to the sufferings as a result of atrocities perpetrated on them by Israeli forces. It all started on 14th May 1948 when the UN, the successor to the League of Nations, implemented the 1947 UN Partition Plan and established the state of Israel. With backing of the West, Israel continued usurping the Palestinian land, and balked at UN resolutions giving the Palestinians the right to have an inde­pendent state. In July 2004, after 37 years of 1967 war International Court of Justice in its judg­ment had declared the occupation of Palestinian lands by Israel as illegal. It said that Israel was under an obligation to cease forthwith the construction of wall built in the occupied Palestinian territory including in and around Jerusalem, and to demolish the raised structures. The court had called upon the UN General Assembly and Security Council to lake action to halt the construction work, but to no avail.

The six-day war of June 1967 between Israel and Arabs had brought total ruin and humiliation on Arabs, who did par­tially succeed in restoring their lost hon­our in October 1973 war. But recognizing the futility of seeking recovery of their lost territory through UN, Egypt entered into peace treaty - The Camp David Accord with Israel and recovered Sinai. The Palestinians however continue to groan under Israeli-occupation, which 'with passing of each day is becoming more repressive and intolerable. The Palestinian existence in the occupied lands has become a long night of terror and misery, with relentless Israeli poli­cies of dispossession and deprivation.

During last 40 years, a number of ini­tiatives for peace have been taken, in the context of Security Council Resolution 242 but none has succeeded. Palestinian problem continues to defy any solution, primarily due to intransigence of Israel, blindly supported and encouraged by US. The Palestinian tragedy has been further compounded with the treachery of Arabs, duplicity and silence of International Community and in no small measure due to their incompetent leadership, which preferred rhetoric to reality and indulged in romantic belief that the justice of their cause would eventually prevail. Security Council Resolution 242 of November 22, 1967 provided the basic framework for negotiations and peace to remove the effects of 5th June war and subsequent efforts at negotiated settle­ment, such as Oslo Accords have been based on this resolution. That these peace efforts and accords have failed to deliver are due to the ambiguity of the 242 and also Israel's policy of aggression and expansion. Resolution 242 "empha­sizing the inadmissibility of the acquisi­tion of territory by war" asked for "with­drawal of Israeli armed forces from terri­tories occupied in the recent conflict" and respect for "sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every state in the area, and their right to live in peace within secure and recog­nized boundaries".

The Oslo Accord was based on the principle of "Land for Peace", and the US was a guarantor for implementation of the agreement. Even President Bush's 'road map' has been torn into bits by Israel. It is too well known that the Israeli lobby afflicts US Congress and the President. The immense power of the Jewish lobby is a proven (act, and nobody on Capitol Hill will dare defy this all-pow­erful lobby. The problem is that the secu­rity of Israel is the cornerstone of the US foreign policy. And the US has also suf­fered because of giving unqualified sup­port to Israel turning a blind eye to the occupation of Palestinian land and large-scale killings of Palestinians.

As stated above, the new initiative for independent Palestinian state smacks of evil intentions of the US, as it has already slapped more sanctions on Iran's military and banks. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has as usual shrugged off the new sanctions, and hopes that China and Russia would not allow the US to get a resolution passed in the UN Security Council. He understands that the US is stuck up in Afghanistan and Iraq; therefore it can­not afford to start a new venture, which can add to its woes. But the statements of US officials that the US can afford to open many fronts besides Iraq and Iran indicate that something is brewing up which will be detrimental to the inter­ests of the region.