Ahmed Al-Jarallah – Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

FOR the past 70 years, the Palestinian case has only been receiving statements of condemnation and meetings that never ended with realistic resolutions from Arabs and Muslims. Resolutions issued by the United Nations Security Council or the United Nations General Assembly are usually vetoed by the United States of America or the Western bloc, or left in the archives without any effect.The reason behind all this is that Muslims in general, and Arabs in particular, have never agreed on a stance toward the Palestine case. This case has been transformed into hanger of regimes, coups and revolutions; whereas the Palestinians have been left for bloody investments in their own case through hired guns or the displaced pawned by Arab revolutionists. Since the 1897 congress in Basel, Switzerland; the Zionist global movement has set the ultimate goal – to establish a Jewish State in Palestine.It invested all its energy and relations in the world to achieve this goal; hence, 20 years after the congress, the Balfour Declaration came as the actual first step towards building such a State.During that time, the Zionist leaders worked on convincing Ottoman leader Sultan Abdul- Hamid II to grant them the right of settlement in Palestine in exchange for rescuing his empire from bankruptcy and providing him with financial support.After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the late Turkish leader Mustafa Ataturk supported the idea of the Zionist entity and went on to help in its establishment. We all learned from history books what transpired in the Second World War and the reward that the Europeans granted to the Jews who helped them.At the time, the Arab countries were still under English and French colonialism, so these countries had no power to impose their will. In fact, the Arab resistance movement in Palestine used obsolete weapons, while the Zionist gangs used the latest weapons. After 1948, the liberation of Palestine became the slogan of Arab revolutionists — starting from Egypt’s Jamal Abdul- Nasser who declared that he will throw the Jews into the sea.The late Abdul-Nasser went on to engage in two wars with Israel and he lost in both wars. In 1967, the Israeli military occupied Sinai and Suez Canal. The Israeli military reached the borders of Egypt’s Ismailia City; whereas on the Syrian front, Golan Heights fell into Israel’s hands, in addition to Gaza Strip and West Bank. Before that, Arabs did not listen to any voice of wisdom, not even when Tunisia’s Habib Bourguiba spoke.In the blink of an eye, he (Bourguiba) transformed from liberation and resistance leader against colonialism into a defeatist traitor after his statement in the West Bank in 1966. Bourguiba stated the Arabs should dialogue with Israel and accept the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine.The Arabs did not listen when some Arabs declared that there is no solution to the Palestinian case except through dialogue. After the painful death of Abdul- Nasser in 1970, Libya’s Colonel Gaddafiinherited the slogans and started to use them in promoting his ambition of becoming the Arab revolutionary leader. The same applied to the Baathist Party in Syria and Iraq, and then Saddam Hussein made his way to Palestine through Kuwait and Riyadh. He established a battalion called ‘Jerusalem Army’ with seven million paramilitary officers.It is the same army which evaporated immediately after the US forces occupied South Iraq in 2003. The situation was not any better in the Muslim world. In 1979, Khomeini made the Palestine liberation slogan as one of his cornerstones for exporting his revolution to Arab countries. He declared the last Friday of Ramadan every year as ‘Jerusalem Day’. He also established a military wing called ‘Quds Force’. However, his objective was to expand his influence in the Arab world; starting from the Gulf countries to Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Algeria and Morocco.This means the Mullah regime set its bearing in Palestine to go through the Arab capitals, whether in Kuwait where several terrorist operations were executed — the most recent of which was the ‘Abdali Cell’, or in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. This is in addition to the occupation of islands belonging to the United Arab Emirates and it does not end in Yemen.The episode of Iran swimming in Arab blood continued although the ‘Quds Force’ did not turn to Israel which has existed on its border with Lebanon since 1982, and its border with Syria since 2012. These facts enabled Israel to win all rounds because it has been consistent in its agenda and it stood on one ground, while the Arabs and Muslims have individual objectives obscured by the Palestinian case. From the start, Tel Aviv portrayed itself as the dove of peace as in the song of pro-Israel French musician Salvatore Adamo; while the Arabs are portrayed as the poacher.With this conviction, the late US president Ronald Reagan addressed Saudi Arabia’s King Fahad during the Cancun Climate Conference in 1980 saying; “Israel has proven that it is striving for peace and it has the right to do so, whereas the Arabs portray themselves as a terrorist that wants to eliminate mankind.” In response to Reagan’s statement, King Fahad, who was the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia at the time, proposed a peace initiative which was endorsed by Arabs in the second Arab League Summit to prove to the world that the Israeli peace drama does not portray the real aggression on which its entity is based.This came after Sadat’s peace initiative which put Israel in trouble as it tried to free itself many times due to the fact that the death of Israel lies in peace and putting it within the 1967 borders was unacceptable. Unfortunately, there are Arab countries which have relations with Israel, such as Qatar; and at the same time, bargains on other countries like Saudi Arabia by accusing them of abandoning the Palestinian case. In reality, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries are continuously trying to fix whatever such bargains have destroyed in the past 70 years. Therefore, if Arabs continue to fail in taking a unified stance; their statements, summits and even the international resolutions will never find a place in reality; in fact, they will remain ink on paper. By Ahmed Al-JarallahEditor-in-Chief, the Arab Times[email protected]