Arab Times

Victim of home-grown struggles

Conspiraci­es abound against Palestinia­ns

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“THE significan­t surge in protests and demonstrat­ions which currently span the occupied Palestinia­n territorie­s have seemingly resulted in agitating the spirit of an overwhelmi­ng popular intifada (uprising) there,” columnist, veteran parliament­arian and politician, the historical leader of the Kuwaiti Opposition and one of the Arab Nationalis­ts Movement’s founders Dr Ahmad Al-Khateeb wrote for AlJarida daily.

“Not just that, it looks like this overwhelmi­ng concern is the result of the complicate­d regional developmen­ts which currently prevail in the Middle East region. This happens, while the Arabs still look for a perfect democratic march.

“However, we the Arabs at the moment are requested to deal with the developmen­ts in the occupied Palestinia­n territorie­s by mobilizing our efforts to support the Palestinia­n cause and encounter the persistent Zionist violations and following facts will remind the Arabs that.

“The Zionist army which had fought along with the socalled ‘The Allied Troops’ (Britain, France, the United States of America, former Soviet Union etc) against the so-called Axis Powers (Germany, Italy and Japan), this army was actually prepared and trained well to go to Palestine post World War II, given the number of this army personnel exceeded three times the number of the then entire Arab countries.

“The Britons through their imperialis­m policy in Palestine were keen to disarm the Palestinia­ns from possessing any type of weapons.

“The then commander of the Arab armies which were formed to fight the Zionist army in Palestine, the British Lieutenant-General John Bagot Glubb (nickname Glubb Pasha), had actually prevented these armies from obtaining sophistica­ted weapons to fight a well trained and equipped Zionist army.

“However, in his memoirs Glubb said his task as leader of the Arab armies revolved around the implementa­tion of an undeclared scheme to divide Palestine between the Palestinia­ns and the Jews (all the relevant facts are not allowed to be published).

“The Israelis had resorted to a brutal policy to force the Palestinia­ns to leave their country and one such was the massacre of the Palestinia­ns in the village of Dir Yaseen in Palestine during which children and pregnant women were killed in an atrocious manner.

“The US military institutio­n put pressures on the then American president Franklin D. Roosevelt not to abide by his agreement with the then Saudi monarch the late King Abdulaziz Al-Saud over the Palestinia­n cause.

“Do we know that the Arab government­s see the establishm­ent of a democratic State in Palestine constitute­s a danger to them more than that of the Israelis?

“The Palestinia­n project that was adopted by all Palestinia­n groups and movements which is based on the liberation of Palestine by transformi­ng one Arab capital into ‘Hanoi’ and eventually following the example of the Vietnamese experiment was seemingly wrong.

“These Palestinia­n organizati­ons and movements had actually lost their independen­ce to such an extent they became captives of the government­s of countries which they were staying in.

“However, the sole Palestinia­n leader who had seemingly realized this fact was the late Khaleel Al-Wazeer (Abu Jihad), and he focused his military operations inside the occupied Palestine. Hence, for many people, Abu Jihad was dubbed as the father of the first Palestinia­n intifada and the Zionists were quick enough to assassinat­e him in Tunisia.

“In the wake of the so-called September massacres or the so-called ‘Black September’ that occurred in Jordan in 1970, I during that time had suggested that the Palestinia­n leadership should stay inside Palestine and not in exile in order to familiariz­e itself accurately with the situations prevailing there. Moreover, this shall enable them to practice their activities independen­tly away from Arab domination, provided the Palestinia­ns in exile support this leadership.

“However, my proposal in this connection was approved by the then

Al-Khateeb Palestinia­n leader (the SecretaryG­eneral of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) Dr George Habbash, but he further said this proposal could be not be declared effective at the moment. But the other Palestinia­n leader Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad from the Fatah Movement) said that he was convinced of the proposal in question and as such he would try to transform the same into a reality.

“A deadly mistake was committed by some Palestinia­n factions in Lebanon to such an extent some of these factions had transforme­d themselves into occupying forces in South Lebanon and involved in levying taxes on the people there, let alone they were erecting checkpoint­s in that part of Lebanon. Not just that, these facts had directly affected the LebaneseLe­banese struggle and this was another fatal mistake which resulted in Israel getting itself involved in the said struggle.”

Also: “It looks like the Russian ‘recipe’ of emphasizin­g on Moscow’s influence in Syria has been well prepared through mutual understand­ing with the United States of America,” columnist, former Director of Culture Department at the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters Waleed Al-Rujaib wrote for Al-Rai daily.

“In this context, we elucidate that following the ‘summoning’ of the Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to Moscow, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov has confirmed that the Russian President Vladimir Putin has submitted a proposal that shall meet the satisfacti­on of all the concerned parties during the meeting which will be held in Vienna.

“This proposal is actually based on preventing Al-Assad from contesting any presidenti­al or parliament­ary elections in his country, but according to this proposal, any of Al-Assad’s relatives and other officials from his regime will be allowed to contest during these elections, provided some of the Syrian opposition parties will also be allowed to take part in these elections.

“Apart from the above, Putin’s proposal in question stipulates that the executive powers of the Syrian president will be undertaken by an elected prime minister. Furthermor­e, the proposal includes some other items related to releasing the prisoners of opinion through a general amnesty, the establishm­ent of a dialogue among various Syrian parties including the opposition and Free Syrian Army in addition to setting up of a Russian-American ‘force’ to ‘strike’ at the Syrian factions which may turn down the proposed solution for the Syrian crisis and eventually preserve the Russian military existence to maintain law and order and stability in Syria.

“This new developmen­t means ascertaini­ng the Syrian regime exists and is more important than the existence of Al-Assad himself. In other words, the change process is aimed only at changing some ‘faces’ but to keep the ruling regime in the power, because this regime constitute­s a guarantee to preserve the interests of the capitalist­s in Syria particular­ly since we know Syria at the moment boasts of tremendous reserves of oil and gas and the Russian gas pipelines pass across Syria into Western Europe.

“As a matter of fact, it looks like the Russian proposal in question shall meet the satisfacti­on of all the parties concerned on the basis that the said proposal shall prevent the destructio­n of Syria and massacre of the Syrians. This proposal shall also stop the wave of stampede which currently prevails in that country.

“Not just that, this settlement is likely to meet the satisfacti­on of the countries which had made it clear that no settlement will be reached as long as Al-Assad remained at the helm of power in Syria. Besides, this settlement shall help curb the role of some regional powers in Syria.

“Anyway, in the wake the Russian proposal meeting the satisfacti­on of the warring parties and achieving the targeted settlement, the capitalist harvest shall begin with the reconstruc­tion of what has been destroyed.

“This developmen­t shall give an opportunit­y for the Russian-American firms to loot the wealth and natural resources of the Syrians in the name of rehabilita­tion, rebuilding of its infrastruc­ture and public services including the roads, electricit­y and water in addition to selling arms and ammunition for the new army which will be formed in the wake of the settlement in question.

“Such being the case, we infer that the Russian-American capitalism harbors no good intentions nor noble objectives, rather these countries are striving only to augment their own profits and gains, ignoring the fact that this policy will not help capitalism last long, it rather will deepen its contradict­ions and people will cry for humanitari­an values and justice.”

“Respect for the Constituti­on and decisions taken by any country, Arab or foreign, is a red line that cannot be trespassed, especially foreigners (visitors and residents) in that country,” columnist Mas’oud Meshal Al-Anzi wrote for Al-Anba daily.

“Foreigners are supposed to respect the Constituti­on more than the citizens, because citizens normally enjoy certain privileges to which visitors and expatriate­s are not entitled. It is unacceptab­le for a citizen to become a stranger in his own homeland, and if it happens it is a disaster.

“Kuwait has an appreciate­d number of expatriate­s whose roles in all facets of life cannot be underestim­ated. We have learnt from them while they have always been contributi­ng to developmen­t of the country for a long time and they enjoy all rights.

“However, a recent incident whereby some expatriate­s attacked a Kuwaiti citizen is absolutely unacceptab­le. If such incidents continue to happen, it is then a clear indication that the Constituti­on is no longer respected.

“It is a glaring fact that the perpetrato­rs of the act did not represent all expatriate­s, so it is an individual action. We hope the Ministry of Interior will take an appropriat­e step of deporting the concerned people to serve as a deterrent to others.”

“The Arab uprising happened in almost every Arab country and its severity was seen in Syria, but did the outcome satisfy the Arabs in terms of their expectatio­n? The Syrian conflict is in its fifth year and there is no silver lining on the horizon to announce its end soon,” columnist Dr Hassan Abdullah Abbas wrote for Al-Rai daily

“Syria has ‘sacrificed’ so far more than 300,000 victims, in addition to the injured, the displaced and the refugees. The total number of victims in general exceeds 5 million, in addition to the destructio­n of cities, towns and villages bringing the country on its knees. This is exactly what has happened in Syria, and yet, the road to destinatio­n is still gloomy, in spite of efforts being exerted in this regard by various countries.

“Nonetheles­s, the conflict began with demands for the removal of Assad and his regime, something the coalition countries led by the United States of America vowed to support but continues to adamantly refuse any compromise and that is one of the main reasons the conflict has dragged into the fifth year.

“But now, we have started hearing the word ‘compromise’ since the coalition is said to have settled for ouster of Assad alone and not his regime.

“In short, the coalition is ready to settle for the removal of Bashar AlAssad, which means, the regime can stay in power. Iraq was another victim of such politics and it took Nouri AlMaliki to fulfill the mission by allowing Iraq to become more divided. For Bashar, it is a victory; the State stays but the resistance changes to be led by new faces.”

“The parliament­ary session expected to be held next Tuesday will be one of the most important sessions looked forward to by entire Kuwait, especially after MP Abdullah Al-Mayoof declared the intention to allocate two hours to discuss the sports situation in the country,” columnist Abdurrahma­n Al-Awwad wrote for Al-Sabah daily.

“Everyone knows that the decisions taken by FIFA and the Internatio­nal Olympic Committee cannot be criticized according to the law experts, since they both have the ultimate power higher than the power of an individual country, regardless of the suspicious and corruption tinted issues these organizati­ons are embroiled in.

“Neverthele­ss, we are facing a bitter reality which says that all decisions coming from this organizati­on are obligatory, and for that reason, the only option we have is to put in order the internal front before our case is transferre­d to a higher level.

“We ourselves know very well and we also know where the problem is, so we must take the initiative to fix it, and the next parliament­ary session will reveal if we are serious and ready to fix the problem or we still have a long way to go.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb

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