and wise men begin their journey.
Please excuse the religious metaphor. Being ethnically a Christian Palestinian, a child of a community whose members have suffered so much from the expansion of the settlement regime around Bethlehem and Jerusalem, I feel drawn to these words.
Indeed, claiming exclusive ownership of this story, our story because after generations of occupation we own nothing else. Our remaining dignity is the ancient narratives that together with our Muslim kin folk, our brothers and sisters, our lovers and family, whom we protect and who protect us; are like deep roots of a smashed olive tree in occupied Palestine.
The planets seem to have aligned over Palestine and the great northern star seems ready to shine. Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Sa'adat appear to be ready to leave prison and assume leadership, the occupation is set to declare a freeze of settlement construction and hopefully an end to the thuggery of land theft and indignity, and the dogs of war are on a short leash with generals and officers facing war crimes allegations.
Much of this to my optimistic disposition seems to be the response to the Palestinian president's threat to resign. He and his advisers have been caught unaware. Strangely this is the main source of my optimism.
It seems that Mahmoud Abbas, a good but entirely untalented man, was unaware of the major events happening on his watch. This unawareness inspires a measure of optimism in me. I felt the first hint of cheerfulness when I read the following in the Arabic press:
The US president Barak Obama is currently doing nothing to revive the peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians, said President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday during a visit to Argentina.
http://www.maannews.net/...
Recently, of course Mahmoud Abbas threatened to resign from his position. He has always strongly had the aura of a Bush appointee. Though, not as deliberate as Ahmad Chalabi or Hamid Karzai, there is a perception that Mahmoud Abbas was picked out by the Bush administration as a replacement from the late Yasser Arafat well before Yasser Arafat was imprisoned under conditions that lead to his apparently premature death.
I don't think that Mahmoud had expected the administration to respond to his threat to resign in such a cool manner. Should Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Saadat be released so quickly after Abaas' resignation threat, then it seems obvious to me that this is the administration's response. They essentially accepted the resignation and have bid him farewell. I don't think that Abbas expected that his resignation will so readily be accepted.
To my mind Barghouti and Saadat could not have been released under the Bush administration even by order of the High Court or the civil administration in the occupied territories. They are too dangerous and present far too coherent a leadership for the tastes of the previous administration, which regularly and actively prevented substantial progress in peace negotiations. However, given the change in priorities it would perhaps make sense for this administration to end the tenure of Abbas and facilitate the emergence of a far more popular leadership that has the capacity to actually lead.
It seems to me that the Obama administration is far more engaged in trying to resolve the Palestinian tragedy than even the most optimistic among us could have hoped for should the following four events happen in the near future:
- Abbas' political career ends and the administration makes it clear that it is comfortable with this.
- Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Saadat are released from prison.
- Settlement activity in the occupied territories is halted.
- The Goldstone report detailing crimes against humanity is allowed a measure of international legitimacy.
Of course, I am pathologically inclined toward optimism and have been so since the euphoria of Obama's election. Perhaps I am hoping against hope. Perhaps the actual spark for my optimism was a friend's article in ynetnews essentially calling on the administration to give a final and firm ultimatum on the occupation. Perhaps my optimism is as incoherent as Ariel's:
In their desperation, people turn to fortune tellers. As someone from the academic world, I turn to surveys. It’s more or less the same thing. So, even though I realize that my surveys are tainted with what I’d like to see, I try to believe in them. Now, as the ultimatums are hopefully at the gate, I have found some hope.
http://www.ynetnews.com/...