Franklin Lamb --Beirut
Robert Satloff |
Satloff: “That departure is not for the better. One line sums up Obama’s serious mistake, where he declares that "The status quo is unsustainable, and Israel must act boldly to advance a lasting peace."
These are just code words for making concessions to enemies sworn to eliminate the Jewish state. This is not policy; this is folly.” Pipes told Fox TV and MSNBC.
Eliot Abrams |
The catastrophe was not settlement expansion—and Palestinian demands could not be met by freezing construction... The demand of Nakba Day is that the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 be reversed!...
When Hamas’s Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah spoke last Sunday in a Gaza speech, he told the cheering crowd that they were demonstrating "with great hope of bringing to an end the Zionist project in Palestine. And last week Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said, "We will never give up the right of return." This, Abrams concluded “is the real Nakba or catastrophe for Israel.” Abrams believes that Obama is going to push Israel hard on peace with the Palestinians during the upheaval in the region.
Zionist leaders are right to be concerned. As is made clear by reports from those who participated in Nabka 2011 from Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and countless supporting demonstrations around the planet this year’s game changing event was truly momentous.
As we approached Maroun al Ras, some of them were anxious, others silent and reflective, and some, like many teenagers from my generation about to see the Beatles or Elvis were giddy and squealing as the bus rounded a bend in the road south of Aitaroun and we looked to the approaching hills.
“Is that my country Palestine over there?,” Ahmad, a graduate in Engineering who was born in Shatila camp asked. “Nam Habibi!” (“Yes Dear!”) came the reply from the microphone of our “bus mother” gripping her clip board and checking the names to keep track of her flock.
This bus seemed to inflate with delirium as we all smiled and shouted. Some of the passengers had prepared signs that read: “People want to return to Palestine,” inspired perhaps by the slogan made famous in Egypt and Tunisia, “People want the fall of the regime.”
The esprit was reminiscent of a Mississippi freedom ride James Farmer of CORE used to tell us about and I thought of Ben Gurion’s boast from 1948 that the old will die and the young will forget Palestine.
The Zionist leader could not have been more mistaken. The old, many still vital and those who departed this life, continue to teach and inspire the young from their still remembered stories, guaranteeing that the dream of every Palestinian shall never die.
Human march to Palestine; May 15, 2011 |
The refugees came to renew their commitment and send the Obama Administration and the World a message that they are determined to return to their land no matter the sacrifices required.
For some coming to see Palestine, including some of those who have been forced out of their homes and off their lands, 63 years ago, it appeared to be almost a sacred and religious act. Whenever the buses would pass one of the signs that read in Arabic and English, for example, “Palestine: 23 km”, our bus would erupt in cheers.
However as the World soon learned, in Lebanon alone, 10 Palestinians were killed by Israeli snipers and more than 120 wounded, some critically. None of the demonstrators had weapons.
Those murdered were all civilians from the Camps and were shot in cold blood as they nonviolently as placed Palestinian flags at the fence and gave the peace and victory sign. After Israeli troops fired on them, some threw rocks at the soldiers.
Fortunately some lives were saved by a field hospital affiliated with the group, the Martyr Salah Ghandour Hospital, from nearby Bint Jbeil.
Zionist occupation forces could be seen by those gathered near the blue line at Maroun Al Ras peering out from behind trees or barriers while others were fully visible. One knowledgeable source informed this observer that unseen Hezbollah resistance fighters at one time had as many as 32 Israelis in the cross-hairs of their unseen weapons as they silently watched what was happening.
Hezbollah decided not to kill them which would have accommodated Israel’s intent behind its deadly provocation—this time.
The Zionist lobby is correct in thinking that this year’s Nakba commemoration was different than those in the past just as they realize that it very likely signified a new broader and internationally supported Intifada and that the Palestinian cause in rapidly gaining adherents.
While not all that it should have been by any means, President Obama’s 5/19/11 speech, which is causing many in the occupied US Congress to claim he “sold out Israel “does appear to recognize the historic shift on the ground in this region that will lead to the Palestinians regaining their dignity, homes and land.
Elliot Abrams, Daniel Pipes, Dennis Ross, Robert Satloff and many others predict perceive an approaching Nakba for the Zionist occupiers of Palestine and that it is just a matter of time.
Zionism’s coming Nakba will mean justice, sixty-three days late, for those who were ethnically cleansed from their country.
River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
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