Kairos Christmas Alert 2019
kairospalestine.ps/.../kairos-christmas-alert-2019
Intro: Jesus Christ is born. Let us rejoice… “The angels said to the shepherds in Bethlehem: ‘I bring you news of great joy… A Savior has been born to you’” (Luke 2:10-11), and they sang the song of “peace on earth” (Luke 2:14). In Bethlehem, Christmas is a remembrance of what happened 2,000 years ago. In the hearts of people, there is joy and prayer but also sadness: O Lord, have mercy. Because in Bethlehem, in all the Holy Land, Israel and Palestine, soldiers armed with weapons dare to silence the voice of the angels…
Advent Week 3: Daoud Kuttab
is a Palestinian journalist, a media activist and a columnist for Palestine Pulse
Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian journalist, a media activist and a columnist for Palestine Pulse. He is a former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University and is currently director-general of Community Media Network, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing independent media in the Arab region
https://kairospalestine.ps/images/kairos-christmas-alert-2019.pdf.
Ever since Donald Trump was sworn in as president of the United States, it seemed that he was obsessed with finding a solution to the Palestinian Israeli conflict. But after an initial flurry of meetings with all parties in the conflict, the American point of view became very clear and it wasn’t very pleasant. The most important conclusion from the actions and statements that have ensued shows clearly a total and blind bias to one side of the conflict.
Trump’s white nationalism and his racist hatred for Muslims and nonwhite immigrants also contributed to this mindset. The earlier passion about finding a solution, it turns out, was only made as a result of Trump’s narcissism because he thought he could use a Middle East peace treaty to win the coveted Nobel Peace prize.
In reality Trump was able to create a policy that combined two extreme political parties: far right-wing Israelis with extremely pro-Israel Christian Zionists. The first group led by a right-wing leader with similar characteristics to himself, and the other an important rightwing Republican constituency that became the strongest base of support for him.
It was not difficult for Donald Trump to find people to help him carry out a policy that would please these two groups. Jared Kushner, his son in law, a strong supporter of Israel and a financial supporter to exclusive Jewish settlements, was appointed the lead person in reaching this elusive peace. Trump also appointed a number of his close American Jewish lawyers to help carry out this policy. David Friedman, his trusted bankruptcy lawyer—a man with no diplomatic experience who also was a contributor to Jewish settlements—was appointed as ambassador to Israel. Jason Greenblatt, yet another pro-Israel American Zionist, was given the position in the White House to carry out this policy. On the Christian Zionist end, Trump had some key persons in his administration led by Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Press Secretary Sarah Sanders Huckabee, daughter of the fundamentalist Christian preacher Mike Huckabee.
Initially, Palestinian leaders were lured to thinking that Trump was serious. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met a number of times with the U.S. president and his team and there was a false feeling that Americans wanted to find a solution based on an agreed-to compromise which was possibly close to what had been agreed to in previous administrations.
But this turned out to have been a trap. The real U.S. policy soon emerged with the defunding of UNRWA, the transfer of the U.S. embassy, the closure of the PLO office in Washington, and the strong bond between Trump and Netanyahu. Not only was Trump’s Middle East team clearly set on supporting the Israeli position. They did something very few political observers could interpret. They went out of their way to try and destroy the Palestinian side. Jared Kushner admitted that the U.S. policy was built on the idea of financially squeezing Palestinians to the point of bringing them to their knees so that they would accept whatever the U.S. wanted them to accept. The idea of putting tremendous pressure on Palestinians appears to fit very closely with the thoughts of another American Zionist and Islamophobic, Daniel Pipes.
Pipes, an early proponent of the need to profile Muslims, is the founder and president of the Middle East Forum, an independent nonprofit organization. Its mission is promoting American interests through publications, research and media outreach. But his most important writing in this area has been his repeated calls that the resolution of the Middle East conflict should focus on the idea that Israel has won and Palestinians have lost and that peace requires a total Palestinian surrender. Pipes’ ideas have been translated into a collaboration between the U.S. Congress, the Israeli Knesset, and American Christian Zionists, entitled The Israel Victory. The project introduces a new policy for a peaceful solution: “The Palestinians ‘lose’ by giving up their century-long rejection of the Jewish state, and Israel ‘wins’ by truly succeeding in its 150-year quest for a sovereign home-land.”
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, faulted by many for not being totally democratic, responded decisively. Palestinians totally boycotted the most powerful country in the world in a rare act of principled political courage that has in many ways erased many of his faults and other weaknesses. Palestinians denied the Americans the ability to claim that they have a Palestinian partner in their onesided attempts at dictating a onesided solution in the conflict. Americans thought, or were advised, that Palestinians would soon buckle and give in. Israel was brought in to help in this wicked scheme by denying Palestinians their rightful tax funds collected on their behalf as part of the Palestinian-Israel Declaration of Principles which was signed in the White House in 1993. The U.S. did nothing to press Israel to honor an agreement to which the Americans were witnesses, leaving the Palestinians to fight for their own survival with little help even from Arab countries (Jordan being an exception).
While the so-called U.S. vision for peace in the Middle East has turned out to be nothing short of a dictate, Palestinians are fighting for their political lives and their rights to live in freedom on their own land. Palestinian assets may be few but their steadfastness can only continue as long as the peoples of the world continue in their principled position to support the inalienable and legitimate rights of Palestinians. No time in the history of the Palestinian struggle has the need for this support been as needed as it is today.
Reflect:
“It is a blessed thing to know that no power on earth, no temptation, no human frailty can dissolve what God holds together.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Pray: God, when I don’t have the words to pray, hear my sighs. But let neither my words nor my sighs keep me from rising up to love and serve you by loving and serving others. In the name of the One who in the garden
prayed, “Thy will, not mine.” Amen.
Act: Support Palestinian rights by supporting Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the State of Israel until its laws and policies and practices comply with Inter-national Law and UN resolutions. Speak out for the right of persons, corporations, states and nations to boycott Israel as an expression of free speech.
CPF Newsletter December 2019
