My recent visit to Gaza as part of the Viva Palestina Aid Convoy led by the indefatigable member of the British parliament and founder of the Respect Party, George Galloway was an eye opener in more ways than one.

Enough has been written about the convoy since it commenced its journey on December 6th 2009, and the wanton destruction unleashed by the Israeli war criminals culminating in the UN sanctioned Goldstone Report. While these coverage of the plight and sufferings of the Palestinians in Gaza following the barbaric invasion in 2008, were necessary and timely, few analysts, if any, dare venture to explain why Israel is so obsessed in its attempts to subjugate the Palestinians in Gaza and why the regimes in the Middle East by their tacit silence closed their eyes and betrayed their ‘Arab brothers’.

Fear!

Deep-rooted fear, to be precise, fear of the Palestinians as a people, as a nation!

The British understood that to win the Great Game, control of the massive land mass stretching from Turkey to the Central Republics of the former Soviet Union and the Middle East was paramount. The Sykes-Picot agreement established the present Arab regimes and the secured boundaries that ensured the total compliance to British dictates. The Balfour Declaration and the subsequent establishment of Israel provided the geopolitical basis for a state of perpetual war against the Palestinians and as a surrogate bully to control and threaten the various Arab regimes, should they entertain any ideas of rebellion.

Given this background [1] one cannot fault any political and military strategists for assuming that the Palestinians would follow their Arab brothers and submit to the fate laid down by the Imperial powers of the day.

The mandarins in Whitehall and now the policy-makers in Washington fail to appreciate and understand that there are certain principles and values that are inviolate – freedom, self-determination, self-respect, dignity and independence. And that death is a worthy sacrifice to achieve these objectives.

For sixty years, the Palestinians have not for one moment given up their God given right to be a free and independent nation.

The Zionists in Israel and the world over have one great fear – fear of this indomitable spirit, a weapon more powerful than any nuclear bomb. Palestine and Palestinians cannot be conquered and subdued.            

One may well ask, “How can the most powerful nation in the Middle East fear the Palestinians?”

Simple!

Israel could never survive on its own. The Israeli leaders from David Ben-Gurion to Ariel Sharon and now Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak were and are too aware that without the combined support of the armed might of the United States, Britain and the European Union and unlimited financial assistance, Israel can never launch any military offensive against Palestine. Israel can commit any war crimes and get away with it because the United States would veto any UN Security Council Resolution criticising and / or condemning Israel’s actions.

The neighbourhood tyrant can only bully with the sanction of the Mafia Don. Absent such support and the local bully loses its fangs and be subjected to ridicule.

If Israel in fact has over 200 nuclear weapons, why is this Zionist state in frenzy over Iran’s peaceful use of nuclear power, notwithstanding repeated and longstanding assurances of United States’ retaliation against any state that intends to attack Israel?

While Israel may be able to intimidate the Arab regimes with its alleged nuclear arsenal, its leaders know that such threats and its armed might has always been perceived as hollow and a “paper tiger” by the Palestinians. While Israel may get away with nuking a pariah Arab state (on the pretext of eliminating terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism), it knows that any nuclear attack, be it by tactical nuclear weapons, would spell the end of Israel as a state. The backlash of anger and hate against Jews in general and Israel in particular would assuredly destroy Jewish power in the United States and in Britain.

This is the worst nightmare for Israel.  

The Israelis cannot fathom why and it is mind-boggling to them that the Palestinians have no fear of Israel. In fact, the Palestinians have utter contempt for the Zionist war criminals and consider them as weaklings!

In simple terms, the Zionist cannot compute this equation.

Worst, the Israelis fear that the ‘Palestinian disease’ would spread to the entire Arab world and liberate the minds of the present Arab population locked in the straight jacket of subservience and obedience. The Arab regimes have a similar fear as a liberated population would spell the end of their dynastic rule. 

A liberated Palestine as the end game would mean the transformation of the entire Arab and Muslim world and a regional power un-beholden to any imperial power. The Great Game would be over.

A historic power shift would move to central Asia, with Palestine in the dominant role.

Too far fetched?

This will not happen soon, as the great powers will definitely ensure that such an end game will not materialise.

But I am an optimist and I believe that such an outcome will occur in the 21st century.

My belief is grounded on my experience in Gaza.

We can debate till the cows come home whether my conclusions are justified. Unless and until you have visited Gaza and talked to the Palestinians, you will not be able to comprehend and understand my faith in the success of their struggle.

Just pause and reflect:

The Palestinians have been brutalised, tortured, collectively punished and betrayed for sixty years, yet they remain undaunted and steadfast in their quest to liberate their homeland. When young Palestinians subjected to daily bombings and atrocities consider Israelis and Zionist as weaklings, they cannot be defeated and conquered.

The Vietnamese succeeded after fifty years of colonial rule.

But the Palestinian victory will have a greater impact, greater than even the collapse of the Soviet Union, which ended the Cold War. 

An imperialist mindset can never ever compute such an equation!





End Notes


[1] This background of necessity is brief and simple as it is not intended for the purposes of this article to provide an exhaustive analysis of the historical developments in the Middle East.

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