Pieces of Advice Addressed to the Palestinians for the Last Time:  Regarding What Should Be Done

Published in April 10, 2018

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Firstly: until when the state of no-war/no-peace would continue along with the plight and suffering of the Palestinians?:

1- Sometimes, we imagine the peace, prosperity, and security the Palestinians and the Arabs would have enjoyed if they had accepted the UN Resolution No. 181 of 1947 and peace was realized between the Arabs and the Israelis. This peace would have spared thousands of victims the suffering, the plight, the forced displacement, and many massacres; peace would have spared the loss of thousands of people who died in the wars of 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973, and the wars in Lebanon and the attrition warfare launched by Egypt against the Israeli occupiers of Sinai before the 1973 war, as well as other types of Arab-Israeli strife in the 1980s, the 1990s, and the 2000s. All such wars and strife ended in heavy losses for the Arabs and the Palestinians; the only victorious ones were the Arab tyrants and the vociferous devils within their regimes. The Arabs have suffered – until now –oppression, tyranny, corruption, massacres, and the terrible harm caused by inter-Arab strife and wars. If Arabs had made peace  with Israel in 1948, they would have entered into natural, gradual phases of democratic transition instead of the tyrannical military regimes (like the one in Egypt) and the tyrannical royal ones (like the one in the KSA) that have caused bloodshed, oppression, corruption, and tons of painful memories.       

2- From 1947 until the present moment, many generations of Arabs have suffered the plight and the bitter taste of successive failures on all levels. This is about the present moment; but what about tomorrow and the near future? What about the children of today who will grow up tomorrow? Will they find more suffering and lose all hopes in a better life? Will they die of sorrow and/or oppression?!

3- The Arab backwardness (since 1947) has caused many generations until now to suffer a lot and to pay a heavy price; will the Palestinians allow such Arab backwardness to confiscate the life and the future of their children? Until when would bloodshed continue? What if the Palestinians can save, the sooner the better, what could be saved now?!  

4- Civilized people learn from their past mistakes and they correct their ideas and stances after drawing valuable lessons; in contrast, animals of the forest never think or change their habits. The Palestinians and Arabs must never allow Arab backwardness to hinder their progress anymore; the current and the next generations must be saved and must not be among the losers as was the case of the previous ones. The policies of the vociferous devils have led the Arabs and the Palestinians to the lower depths of loss and failure; hence, it is high time to be decisive by rejecting such policies and adopting a different, new policy that will provide the Palestinian individuals with human rights and dignity.       

5- What are the features of this new policy that will differ from the policies of the vociferous devils and Arab tyrants?

Secondly: to choose the better choice instead of the worse and the worst choices:

The better choice:

1- The better choice is how Israel deals peacefully with Arab Israelis; for instance, within an Israeli research center we have visited in Jerusalem, a professor there allowed us to see the writings of Palestinians professors who have rejected the vociferous devils and their policies; they saw that their interests are served well and their rights are protected within peaceful coexistence with Israel.   

2- This better choice is witnessed by our person in the two journeys when we visited Sinai in the 1980s, and we mention this a lot in our political articles because such journeys and talking with the Sinai Bedouins helped us correct our views and to remove the negative influence of the brainwash we suffered in the 1960s and the 1970s when we lived in Cairo, Egypt. The Bedouins we have met told us that they feel sad because Sinai is restored to the Egyptian authorities; they told us that Israelis treated them respectfully and in the best manner and as long as they never raise arms against them. They told us that Israelis issued for them Israeli IDs instantly on the spot and provided them with infrastructure and paved roads; they provided water pipelines to several cities; e.g., Sharm Al-Sheikh, and this made the people of Sinai feel prosperous. This is in contrast to the military regime in Egypt that has recently made some of the people of Sinai suffer forced displacement, indiscriminate killings, destruction of buildings, incarceration, and torture, within the endeavors to fight the ISIS elements in Sinai.        

The worse choice:

1- The worse choice is what Israel does when it deals with Palestinian activists who are the victims of the vociferous devils; e.g., Ahed Al-Tamimi, the young woman who slapped two Israeli soldiers in Dec. 17^th, 2017, and she was arrested at dawn of the same day. The Arab and Palestinian vociferous devils in their media have made her an icon of resistance. If an Egyptian young woman did the same to two Egyptian soldiers, she and her family would be raped, tortured, and/or will be among the missing ones within 'mysterious' conditions.

2- What is rarely tackled in the story of Al-Tamimi is that her boldness within the Palestinian struggle cannot be repeated in Egypt or other Arab countries, where people submit totally to the authorities; no Egyptian woman would do what Al-Tamimi did. The Palestinian boldness is seen when the Palestinians are facing Israeli soldiers of occupation; this is in contrast to the total submission of most Arabs to the security apparatuses of the Arab tyrants in all Arab countries.   

3- This Palestinian boldness is partly due to the relative atmosphere of freedom within which the Palestinians live under the Israeli rule; this is shown in several times within the intifadas and within incidents of violent demonstrations; such boldness is rarely found within the other Arab nations that are oppressed by the Arab tyrannical rulers.

4- Yet, how Israel dealt with Al-Tamimi is the worse choice; it is not a good thing; this young woman lives under pressures imposed by the Israeli occupation forces; occupation is a bad thing, and we cannot describe it otherwise. Al-Tamimi has witnessed the suffering and plight of her family; her father was tortured and her mother was beaten and was incarcerated five times.   

5- Hence, Al-Tamimi has grown up between the plight of her parents (within their incarceration and torture) and the empty rhetoric of the Palestinian vociferous devils; this is why she is involved within the political struggle since her childhood; she epitomizes a generation of rebellious young Palestinians; this generation will explode and revolt against the corrupt Palestinian leaders if the status quo would remain unchanged. 

6- There is no doubt that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories is a bad thing; yet, of course, the local occupation by the Arab tyrants is worse.

The worst choice:

 In contrast to Al-Tamimi, we see the worst choice within the suffering inflicted on the Egyptian peaceful rebellious young women within the Egyptian revolt. We provide two examples below.

1- Shaymaa Al-Sabbagh (1984 - 2015) was a political activist from the city of Alexandria who left her 6-year-old boy to participate in a peaceful demonstration in Cairo in Jan. 2015 while carrying flowers; within this peaceful demonstration, a policeman shot her in the face on purpose and she died.

2- The arrested young women during the revolt of Jan. 25^th, 2011, were humiliated by the so-called virginity test; the case drew media attention worldwide despite the media blackout imposed by the Egyptian authorities at the time. This crime of virginity test was committed by some members of the military army who belong to the military central intelligence, a department headed at the time by Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi. Amnesty International has documented this crime within a lengthy report; the ruling military regime in Egypt has protested against such a report and justified what happened by saying that this measure was taken to clear the name of the army soldiers from the accusations leveled at them of raping female protesters at the time; this implies that some women might have been raped.  

3- The military army has a certain role: to defend the homeland, the borders, and citizens and not to rule; when the military regimes assume power and rule (e.g., in Egypt), they use weapons against the armless citizens; it is as if citizens were the enemy that must be humiliated and oppressed. This is what is going on, in our own view, in Egypt until now. 

4- Hence, this was the context of humiliating female protestors in 2011 by the so-called virginity test; cameras also caught the young woman whose outer clothes were removed in public by some army soldiers; this incident was videoed on purpose, as some Egyptian activists have asserted, in order to terrorize women and prevent them joining any peaceful demonstrations that took place after the ouster of Mubarak.

5- Such terrible incidents prove that men of the military regime assume they are masters within 'superior bodies' (http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=15449) and that citizens are slaves that can be raped and killed anytime as was the case of the subjects/cattle of kings/caliphs of the Middle Ages.

6- These questions still persist: who is the real enemy: Israel or the Arab tyrants? Which is worst: the Israeli occupation or the local occupation by the Arab tyrants?

Thirdly: features of having the better choice:

1- To choose the better means to support and to side with the rights of the Palestinian individuals; they must enjoy human rights and political rights within a democratic state that protect such rights and protect their security and welfare. It is not important who would be the ruler/president as long as there is a democratic rule that observes and applies human rights.

2- This is why we do not talk here about the emergence of a Palestinian state, or two states, ruled by thieves/criminals like Arafat, Abbas, and Hamas members with their dominant Arab culture of the vociferous devils; such a state would be owned by tyrants who will monopolize all rights and consume ill-gotten money, oppress and ride/control the Palestinians, and claim they represent (or talk in the name of) the Palestinians; this is the case in all Arab countries ruled by tyrants; this is the worst choice that must be avoided.

Lastly: how to activate and realize the better choice:

1- The Palestinian nation must revolt against Abbas and Hamas within peaceful sits-in and demonstrations that will demand the emergence of a peaceful, democratic State and an end to the authoritarianism and tyranny of Abbas and Hamas; the demonstrators must demand from the UN and the international community to oversee the establishment of this Palestinian democratic state (or two separate states in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank).  

2- This peaceful revolt must announce the fact that the Palestinians seek to consolidate peace with Israel within mutual trust and security.

3- The Palestinians have followed the vociferous devils for several decades, and this has made them reach the lower depths of utter ruin and devastation; they have nothing more to lose now; they would better try peaceful coexistence and democracy instead of living in the same veritable hell of daily plight, suffering, and bloodshed.

The Best Discourse:

 God says in the Quran: "You will remember what I am telling you, so I commit my case to God. God is Observant of the servants." (40:44). As always God says nothing but the Absolute Truth.

COMMENTS:

(1) Lotfiya Saeed: I've posed to myself these questions many times: why are there long queues of people who hope to get entry visas formed at the doors of foreign embassies in Cairo, Egypt? How have the products of China and Japan invaded the markets worldwide? How has Japan survived the WWII and managed to initiate a renaissance on all levels? The answers are found in the above article. The Chinese and the Japanese, unlike Arabs and Egyptians, stopped looking at the past and they focus on the future. Why Arabs are doomed to stick to weeping over the ruins of the past?! Is it the destiny of the Arab mentality to weep over the past forever without ever thinking of the present and the future?! Thank you, Dr. Mansour.       

(2) Noor Mustafa Ali: Thank you, Dr. Mansour, for this great article; I sincerely hope that the Palestinians would read and understand your articles. By the way, the lustful Arab men followed the case of Ahed Al-Tamimi only because she was a blonde woman with blue eyes! The same Arab men eyed with lust the women who fled genocide in Bosnia. In fact, the thieves/terrorists of the MB-affiliated Hamas have committed many heinous crimes against the innocent people of the Gaza Strip, more than the atrocities committed by the Mongols and the Tartars when they conquered the Levantine region. In fact, the Palestinian leaders have nothing to offer but empty rhetoric and emotional speeches in Arab satellite TV channels to beg for donation money and the endless calls (since 2006) to help in the so-called endeavors to 're-build' Gaza. In fact, many Palestinian friends told me that the people of Gaza wished (only in whispers, out of fear of being imprisoned by the Hamas terrorists) that Israel would re-annex the Gaza Strip to end their suffering. Israeli prisons are five-star hotels when compared to the despicable conditions of the Palestinian ones of Hamas that never fit for dogs, let alone human beings. I am never convinced that the people in Gaza desire that the Gaza Strip would be made into an independent state; they are forced to burn tires and threaten the Israeli borders; if there would be a state there, this means more tyranny, theft, bullying, terror, violence, etc. There are many factions in the Gaza Strip now, and they hate one another and compete with one another for power and money. These are not the deeds and stances of people who wish to live in peace within an independent state. Thank you, Dr. Mansour.                    

(3) Dr. A. S. Mansour: We thank Ms. Lotfiya Saeed and Ms. Noor Mustafa Ali for their comments; let us assert the following points. It is known by everyone now that the Hamas terrorists manage a small, personal war to sacrifice Palestinian blood every now and then in order to get money. The Hamas terrorists and the ordinary Palestinians have no right to attack and threaten Israeli borders since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip peacefully and left it to its dwellers. Instead of developing the economy of the Gaza Strip, the Hamas terrorists have controlled everything and severed all relations with the West Bank; they use the people of Gaza to make money by launching rockets at Israel to threaten the Israelis (and they know quite well that such rockets will never hurt Israel) so that Gaza is destroyed and bombarded, and then, they would ask for money donations from many countries; such sums of money are stolen by the Hamas members and they never reach ordinary Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who need help. Abbas is slyer, shrewder, and more cunning than the Hamas members; he monopolizes power in the West Bank and allows no elections to be held; his war against Israel is only using empty rhetoric and hate speeches, because he is a vociferous devil like the rest of the Palestinian leaders. Abbas has chosen deliberately not to stop anti-Israel hate campaigns in the media and never to initiate serious peace negotiations with the Israelis. Abbas will not be able to increase the millions of US$ of his wealth (and his son's wealth!) if peace is restored along with the Palestinians' rights (i.e., security, prosperity, and human dignity) and if the pains and suffering of the Palestinians in the West Bank would come to an end. Thus, Abbas has chosen to be a vociferous devil like his predecessors who emerged since the UN resolution of 1947. Abbas is over 80 years old now; yet, he cannot stop stealing and amassing more ill-gotten money; he never cares about the plight of the Palestinians since their plight allows him and his son to gain more millions of US$. May God curse Hamas and Abbas and their likes in this world and the next one?

(4) Jawad Mustafa: Dear Dr. Mansour, please accept my greetings and full respect to you. I live in Amman, Jordan. Having read your series of articles about your journey to Israel and the Palestinian territories and your pieces of advice to both sides, I'd like to be permitted to criticize some of your views in this comment; I sincerely hope that you will accept my criticism without getting offended. Firstly, your way of demonstrating and explaining the brief details of the Arab-Israeli conflict is not accurate because you assume that European Jews were original dwellers or natives in Palestine; this is not true; in 1914, Arab Jews never exceeded 8% of the whole original dwellers of Palestine (as per the estimates of the Ottoman caliphate), and there were no European immigrant Jews who came from overseas at the time. Hence, most Jewish Israelis of today are the descendants of Jewish conquerors and settlers, not natives, of Palestine; they came and settled under the pretext of fulfilling the myths of the Old Testament. Besides, historically, the presence of the Israelite tribes inside Palestine or Canaan was temporary like other conquerors before and after them; there have been original Palestinians in Palestine or Canaan even before Abraham and Isaac were born. Secondly, I do believe that Israelis are aggressors and they stole the Arab land of Palestine (which was under the British Mandate), and as per the Quran, God does not love the aggressors and transgressors and He will never side with them: "...do not commit aggression; God does not love the aggressors." (2:190). Thus, the Jewish settlers in Palestine in the 1920s and the 1930s were aggressors who stole stretches of land that were never legally their own, and the Jewish armed gangs (who were even stronger than the military troops of Egypt at the time) terrorized and expelled many Palestinians and drove them away from their villages (this is forced displacement, by the way), whereas the British occupiers hanged or imprisoned any Palestinians who carried arms at the time. When Britain withdrew suddenly from Palestine in the 1940s, the British made the balance of power tilt to the side of these European Jewish conquerors/settlers who immigrated to Palestine. Later on, the rulers of Egypt, Iraq, and Jordan exerted their efforts so as to stop the emergence of a Palestinian independent state; this topic is too lengthy to be included in my comment. Thirdly, the main problem is that the Zionist Jews is that they made use of the weakness of the Ottomans to create an influx of Jewish immigrants into Palestine, since the Balfour Declaration in 1917 or the statement of Arthur James Balfour to Lord Rothschild to make the British government support the establishment of a national homeland for the European Jews in Palestine; this means they had to terrorize the Arab native or original dwellers of Palestine who included Muslims, Christians, and Jews to allow European Jewish settlers to remain there. Zionists at one time asked one of the Ottoman sultans to allow them to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine, but their request was refused. Fourthly and lastly, since you are a historian endowed with a vision and an excellent analytical skill, I must be allowed to draw your attention, Dr. Mansour, to the following two facts that will allow you to ponder on how Zionism poses a veritable threat to the whole world. [1] If it had not been for launching WWI, removing the Ottoman caliphate from the world map, and dividing the Arab countries with strange borders, Israel as a state would not have emerged on the world map. [2] If it had not been for launching WWII and the Nazi Holocaust, Israel as a state would not have emerged on the world map; this is because of the fact that European Jews were not particularly interested in moving from Europe in the 1920s and the 1930s; they loved living in their native European countries before WWI and WWII. Hence, it is worth pondering how evil forces of darkness have created certain factors to force the hapless European Jews into relocating themselves as settlers in Palestine. I'd like to assure you that my holding political opinions that differ from yours will not lessen my admiration of your intellectual endeavors of religious and political reform; you must know that I'm a big fan of your Quranism website which is filled with great ideas that are worth pondering for a long time. Thank you very much.                     

(5) Dr. A. S. Mansour: Thank you, Mr. Jawad Mustafa, and we assure you here that you are very welcome to our website. Please allow us to assert the following points to you. [1] We respect your different views about interoperating and analyzing the past; this past is controversial by its very nature; we have mentioned our own views while never claiming to own the absolute truth; we never impose our views on anyone, as you know. [2] What matters most now is the present and the future; there is no such a thing now called Arab-Israeli conflict; Arabs are too busy now launching wars against one another; you should call it the Palestinian-Israeli conflict instead. What must be important to all of us now is to end this Palestinian-Israeli conflict peacefully and as soon as possible. [3] Within this Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Palestinians have adopted one policy/method that made them fail to achieve anything; we propose a different policy/method which we see as the best one: to focus on the human rights of the Palestinian individuals that include freedom, justice, and human dignity. It is the basic right of the Palestinian nation to have leaders serving its interests instead of the current corrupt gangs of thieves like Abbas and Hamas who serve their own personal, financial interests. The human rights of the Palestinian individuals will be provided for them only when they seek to establish peaceful coexistence with Israel; this will spare the lives of thousands of Palestinians at present and in the future. Hence, it is high time for the Palestinian nation to adopt a different policy/method and a new mentality, especially that the status quo (i.e., the presence of Israel and Israeli settlements) will never change; peace talks and negotiations would preferably not include the other Arab countries (it should include the Israelis and the Palestinians only within supervision of the UN or the USA), as the current state of affairs in Egypt, the KSA, the Gulf monarchies, and the North African countries will not allow any good influence to result from their interference within such peace talks. The plight and suffering of the Palestinian nation (which enrich Abbas and Hamas) must come to an end the sooner the better. If our views in the above article are deemed as wrong by anyone, we welcome everyone who desires to write on our website about other suggestions and solutions that will provide human rights to the Palestinian nation and end their suffering and plight. Please accept our respect and affection; you are very welcome to our website, Mr. Jawad Mustafa.

 Signature: Dr. A. S. Mansour.