As so often, the term 'terrorism' has proved a rhetorical smokescreen under cover of which the strong crush the weak... The destruction of Chechnya, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the slow slaughter of the remaining Palestinians, the American occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan -- with the tens of thousands of civilians it has killed... these will never earn the title of terrorism, though civilians were the target and terrorising them was the purpose...
Those with power determine what is legal and illegal... For the weak to resist is illegal by definition... The land of Palestine is being stolen day after day; the Palestinian people is being eradicated day after day. As a result, they respond in whatever way they can... Just as the traditional American cowboy film presented white Americans under siege, with Indians as the aggressors, which was the opposite of reality, so, too, have Palestinians become the aggressors and not the victims...
Israeli elections are coming up and, as usual, these elections are accompanied by war... You cannot be prime minister of Israel without enough Arab blood on your hands... The democratically elected Hamas government was targeted for destruction from the day it won the elections in 2006. The world told the Palestinians that they cannot have democracy, as if the goal was to radicalise them further and as if that would not have a consequence...
A Zionist Israel is not a viable long-term project and Israeli settlements, land expropriation and separation barriers have long since made a two-state solution impossible. There can be only one state in historic Palestine. In coming decades, Israelis will be confronted with two options. Will they peacefully transition towards an equal society, where Palestinians are given the same rights, à la post-apartheid South Africa? Or will they continue to view democracy as a threat?
A failed American administration departs, the promise of a Palestinian state a lie, more Palestinians are murdered. A new president comes to power, but the people of the Middle East have too much bitter experience of US administrations to have any hope for change. As the world prepares to celebrate a new year, now long before it is once again made to feel the pain of those whose oppression it either ignores or supports?
