Gaza : Apocalypse now!

By: Dr. Saeb Shaath

Long before our Great Samson and teasing Delilah, Gaza lived for millenniums in which it played a major role in shaping the ancient world fate. The living ancient cities of the world are very few, Gaza has been described as one of the world's oldest living cities, the name Gaza means “strength and prevalence”, many Layers of civilisation lie beneath its busy streets. To uncover part of the ancient history of Gaza visit the Israel Museum , or the private collections of the IDF generals they have Gaza ’s history on display in their villas. When we ride “Salh el Deen”- Saladin  road, which connect Gaza’s cities towns and villages ; we are riding a road had been ridden before us by the greatest leaders, generals, Assyrian, Persian, prophets , Pharaohs, Alexander the Great, the Crusaders, Napoleon Bonaparte, the Turks, the British, even American presidents and chiefs of the CIA. Gaza held to be of major strategic importance; the only overland route between Africa and Asia, which led predynastic Egypt to establish in 3500 B.C. the citadel of “Tell Sakan” on the banks of the Wadi Ghazzeh, from Gaza “Tell al Ajjul” In the second millennia BC, the Hyksos people marched southward and captured the Great Egyptian Empire, about 1650 BC. We discovered how rich and sophisticated Gazan’s way of life has been pre-historic times. Gaza ’s exports in the 5th century A.D _Byzantine empire era, reached as far as England , Ireland and Geneva , Gaza ’s Schools graduated leading theologians such as Barsanuphius, John of Gaza and Mark the Deacon, whose writings profoundly influenced Christianity at its very early stages. Gaza is still with us on planet earth and tells us, armies have come and armies have gone and ancient Gaza has endured and risen repeatedly. Villains failed to send it in orbit to mar or sink it in the Mediterranean Sea ; there is a lesson to be learned. The Ottomans lost Gaza to the British in the Third Battle of Gaza on 7 November 1917 during the First World War. Sir Archibald Murray who led the first and the second Battle of Gaza in 1916 - 1917 was dismissed and replaced by "the Bull” -General Edmund Allenby, who deceived the defenders by attacking Beersheba and then besieging Gaza . Gaza fell, Allenby’s road to Jerusalem opened up.

The British Political elite designs for Palestine became more obvious, it was a true copy of Napoleon Bonaparte’s falling vision for Palestine . By imposing, the British mandate on Palestine , the British began in implementing Bonaparte’s plan in creating Palestine as Jewish state, to control by proxy the whole of the Arab world and to solve the “eastern problem” -the Jewish problem in Europe . The Holocaust began in earnest in Palestine , against Arabs by Jewish terrorist groups who have been brought into Palestine trained and supplied by the British forces. In Germany and Poland , another Holocaust took place against Jews and many other people. New waves of Jewish refugees arrived to Palestine ; the newly arrived refugees began in taking their revenge on the Germans by killing the Arabs! European guilt complex of what took place in Europe made them to ignore the Holocaust taking place in Palestine .  As a direct  result, today there are over 8 million Palestinian refugees and a  new style of incarcerations for whole nation is taking place, whole cities surrounded by massive walls 100 feet tall 20 feet thick, imprisoning the whole population of every town and city.

Sometimes dividing them in quarters, the walls are supported by 650 military checkpoints, in or out of them, high military authority permits are required, they are bounties, given to the selected few. Sometimes they just forget about whom inside for month Gaza is startling example. They have huge numbers of high-tech spying cameras to watch every single move of everyone, spying satellite systems, nukes and endless arsenal of secrete WMDs. The knowhow from the west and all paid  for by the western tax payers, from the interest of that money their lobbies buy the support of western politicians, that is to say smart!

In unique Gaza that has again honoured its past by defeating the IDF who is armed by the most sophisticated American war machines. The IDF retreated and sealed Gaza by massive walls, electric and electronic fences, the IDF’s companies continued sucking Gaza ’s water out, and they are selling it back to the Gazan’s people! Aren’t they are so smart? Armed by Paris protocol, nothing gets in or out without the IDF approval, any goods in or out have  to go through security examination, that by itself is a unique  process since it destroy most of the goods, but who dares to object? Apart from the high taxes, their service to the little Palestinian producers whose exports meanly vegetables fruits and flowers, is to keep the fresh produce in the checkpoints for weeks. The large Agro Israel companies come to the scene, they take what Western super markets chains need, and sell it for a very nice price; for fresh mint or flat leaf parsley we pay one GBP or two USD dollars, for a small little bag of it. How much do you suppose the Israel’s fat cats pay the little farmer in Palestine, for that bag, around two cents, that if he is lucky to sell in the first place. That is to say, the happy scenario, the alternative is what happing now in Gaza , utter devastation. Israeli military actions since 2000, according to the Israeli civil rights group B'Tselem, have killed four times as many civilians and eight times as many children as the number of Israelis killed by Palestinian violence.

 Israeli factories got special production lines for the Palestinians; God knows why? Since they can consume only what the IDF allows them to, they are easy money for greedy capitalist in Israel . They spare nothing at all from the Palestinians, to the extent of dumping industrial toxic fluids on the north of Gaza . As all of us watched recently on CNN, BBC and Aljazeera news networks, Gaza was subjected to a new style of Holocaust, what the Gazan’s people have to counter the IDF’s state of the art high-tech weapons with? They have their right to resist, and they improvise in making their primitive missiles, after all, they are imprisoned by the IDF. Gazan’s are denied the necessities of existence, why is that?  Don’t we campaign for animal’s protection, and demand not to be subjected for scientific labs experiments, don’t we argue with the Japanese over whaling, we passed laws against foxhunting? Why then ignoring what is happening to millions of refugees from Palestine ? They are under attack on daily bases, for demanding the Implantations of the UN resolutions that definitely granted them the right to return to their homes, the irony here is that, the same resolutions gave birth to the State of Israel! What would we do if someone kicks us out of our home and told us that God gave it to them? What would you do? How would you deal with that? When the bullies and law enforcers sides with them; that is the position, every Palestinian found themselves in. Israel and its British sponsors then blocked the implantation of the resolutions and furthered their attacks on the Neighbouring Arab countries_1956 attack on Gaza and Egypt . The new kid on the block, the American, as a new world super power and Sponsor of Israel, added a new dimension to the conflict, their agenda suddenly matches those advocates of the apocalypse theories, they are using their religious visions to bring their prophesies to a swift conclusion. They are in a hurry after the utter dissemination of Iraq , seeking to attack Iran and Syria , using the same old pathetic scenario, “Hollywood style”. Creating the stereotype demonised enemy, making sure to add bits and pieces, to frighten us more, they are good at it they do it so well, the Arab enemy got to have WMDs, they are so evil. Our so smart CIA, M5 and M6 told us, they are ready to nuke us in minutes; its orange or read alert, they can get their extra funds now. Arabs have replaced the red evil empire, Islam as a religion replaced communism, in a wider context, the danger is greater when they define religion as an enemy, suddenly there are billions of suspects, or potential enemies’ .No country is far from the battlefield, the new enemy lives among us.  Bless your soul Alfred Hitchcock; you were original, but not so scary, now we know the real horror and the intense fear industry. Few weeks back,   I watched a move which I seen before in 1996, it rang some bells inside, I assumed the planners for the new Armageddon, have adopted and implemented its scenario, or some parts of it. Its  Geena Davis’s  “The Long Kiss Goodnight “, I heard they are going to make a sequel soon to it, so I plead with Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) and Mitch (Samuel L. Jackson) to make sure their scenario deals with villains from Mars, please, just in case.The new kid has a vision, to create a pure Jewish state, by transferring millions of Arabs Christians and Muslims outside of Israel, the concept sees Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Gulf states sinks in sectarian turmoil; Lebanese style; Is that due to Oil or USA world hegemony?  I believe the western Imperialists; have to have an enemy to stay united, so they can maintain their dominance over the world and its resources, to keep the gab so wide between the west and the rest. In this context, they keep shifting the enemy image from race to another, ideology to religion. Using terminology such as, the free world, civilized world, our way of life, our values, the others, evil empire, axis of evil, Islamic terrorism -few years back the Islamic terrorists were part of the Regan and Thatcher freedom fighters squads “Mujahedeen” who waged a  Holy war –“ Jihad”, against the Red evil Empire, as both, Regan and Thatcher  informed us, Ben Laden was their hero then, I wonder what really changed. The  US political élite  believes, the alternative to Islam as an enemy, would be turning on each other, the lesson they learned from 1st WW ,2nd WW  and the cold war against Russia . Adding insults to injury some religious freaks pumping us up with, fear and obsession to bring the world to an end; I know for a fact there is over 60 million Americans, who became firm believers in apocalypse theories, the dangerous thing, is in the way American Media and news networks, Europeans to some extent, play on that fear and obsession, they introduce the Apocalypse preachers to us as Middle Eastern Political experts. I recall one of them analysing Hurricane Katrina’s disaster, saying “this is punishment from Gad, because we have been pressurising Israel to make peace with Arabs”, believe it or not, they got the congress and the white House full attention. We are life lovers; we pay green taxes to save our planet, so our kids would inherit a clean and beautiful earth, I wonder, why we pay taxes, to Governments who easily fulfil such freakish agendas?  Why we call upon Pakistan to reform it Madrassas?  When we have huge organizations and colossal Churches, who calls for a final showdown on the soil of Palestine . Where is the moral majority? Who stands for humanity and farness, it is about time for someone to calm them down, teach them the ethos of live and let live?

There are 8 million Palestinian refugees that have been granted the right to return to their homes by International community, it is our duty to implement the UN resolution and enforce it on the ones who disrespect the UN and the International Community, like the state of Israel . Otherwise, the International community has to retract the resolutions, that generously gave birth to the state of Israel, by the same mandate, declare one state for all the residents, who lives or lived in historic Palestine. To establish a secular state which grantees, the rights of everyone to live and build their future in peace, one-man one vote, eradicate the racists state polices, South Africa is a perfect example for what can be done. There is no alternative to that right now, since Bush’s vision and Blair’s viable Palestine state, have vanished under the wall, the settlements, military checkpoints and electric barbwires.  The exoduses of Gaza went southward this time, from here on who knows what would happen in the land of the merciless, are we waiting for another Samson to bringing down the whole of Palestine on himself and his captors?

* Writer, thinker public speaker on Middle Eastern affairs, and a former diplomat. He is the co-founder of Irish Map (Medical Aid for Palestine )