The Elections are Coming!

It is a sad commentary on the state of the Palestinians and their struggle for freedom that articles written more than thirty-five years ago are just as relevant and applicable to their plight today as they were the day they were written. In the November/December 1983 issue of Palestine Perspectives, Muhammad Hallaj wrote the following commentary:

It is often said that the presidential election season is a time of paralysis for American foreign policy. This may be true in some areas of U.S. foreign policy, but certainly not in the Middle East. American policy toward the Arab-Israeli conflict does not suffer from paralysis, but instead becomes gripped with a fit of epilepsy.

This pathetic seasonal phenomenon has already made its appearance in preparation for the coming elections. The various contestants, whether they are guarding their jobs or grabbing for them, have already begun to pay homage to Greater Israel. Although we have become somewhat accustomed to this irresponsible ritual, occasionally we are still shocked by how far some candidates go in sacrificing America's interests and integrity in their chase after votes and campaign money. 

This piece was written in response to a speech by Senator John Glenn to the Foreign Policy Association in New York. Dr Hallaj summarized the main thrust of the speech as "an attack on the concept of 'evenhandedness' in U.S. Middle East Policy. He [Senator Glenn] charged that evenhandedness means a 'tilt away from Israel,' as if that were a self-evident evil."

Those words were penned as the nation prepared for the 1984 elections. Today we are preparing for the 2020 elections. Decades have passed, yet in the midst of it all, American policy toward the Arab-Israeli conflict suffers another seizure. The new Middle East Peace Plan is introduced by none other than Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel. It is a plan tilted so far toward Israel that even The New York Times cannot ignore the tilt.

Mr. Trump vowed at the start of his presidency that he would negotiate a “bigger and better deal” to broker peace than anyone could imagine. Three years later, experts say that the plan, developed under the supervision of Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, falls remarkably short of that goal and is unlikely ever to become the basis for a peace agreement. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/29/world/middleeast/trump-peace-plan-explained.html 

 What is that saying? The more things change, the more they remain the same.

The phrase was coined by French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

We Too Have a Dream

Going through some old publications last night, I came across an article in the September/October 1983 issue of Palestine Perspectives that quoted a message from Mr. Yasser Arafat, then Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, expressing solidarity with the March on Washington and its commitment to human rights. The message was sent in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the celebrated March during which Dr. King give his I Have a Dream speech.

On behalf of my brothers in the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and in the name of the Palestinian people who are struggling to achieve their redemption from the yoke of occupation, discrimination, and oppression and for the enjoyment of their inalienable rights to self determination, statehood, return to their homeland, and freedom, we wish to commend your efforts in bringing hundreds of thousands of Americans to Washington to commemorate the historic march led by the great martyr Dr. Martin Luther King.

We the Palestinian people are heartened by this great development which we believe reflects the true commitment of the American people to build a new coalition of conscience that represents the true soul of the American democracy.

We would like you to know that our people both in occupied Palestine and in exile lock arms with you on this occasion in fraternal solidarity with your struggle to achieve the dream of Dr. Martin Luther king for a new society where equality, justice, peace and love would prevail.

Palestinians: We too have a dream!

___________

As a postscript, I was privileged to be present at both the first March in 1963, and the twentieth anniversary march in 1983. Sadly, the dream is slow in coming.