The Annapolis peace conference is scheduled for Tuesday, November 27, 2007.
I do hope some one at the State department is willing to push the REFRRESH button and start thinking about ideas that work. It takes courage and guts, and without it, nothing in the world would ever be achieved.
Mother Teresa said, "If you want peace, go talk with your enemies, you don't make peace with your friends". I do hope the state department brings people who can speak up the harsh truth. If they bring puppets and make decisions, failure is guaranteed.
All our efforts to place wedges between Abbas and Hamas shows the desperation and insincerity of our Administration to bring peace. These efforts will back fire and are a detriment to peace. Dividing the Palestinians for the short term gain will not cut it, it shows our inability to deal with the subject head on and our deviousness. On the one hand we are buying Abbas out with lots of money, and on the other we are letting people die without medicine, potable water and the very basics of life in Gaza. Is this injustice going keep any people apart? This injustice may bind the Palestinians stronger than ever before. We need to bring honesty and integrity to the conference. For God's sake let's be honest once and genuinely bring peace to the Israelis and Palestinians.
Although we hate Hamas, they need to be in the picture to get decisions implemented. We cannot bring peace unilaterally without the parties to conflict participating in it.
Our foreign policy has relied on our gun powder and our ability to dole out alms to shove nations around the World to achieve our goals. The state department has forgotten that 'lasting relationships' hinge on a dialogue based on treating all parties on an equal footing.
No doubt our policies have failed as we continue to believe that we can buy other nations disregarding their pride. Those nations that challenge our might stand the chance of annihilation and we refuse to talk with them. Does the state department know what diplomacy means? Please push the refresh button.
A few basics need to be addressed and understood by all the parties.
Jews have a need to be understood and be acknowledged for their eternal security needs, not the military, but mental security where they can put their guards down and live their life in peace.
Palestinians have a need to be understood. They have suffered immeasurably, no human should be stripped of his or her hope and dignity; hope to have a family, work and own a house and call a place their homeland.
Our Presidents need to seriously look at what works. They need to have the vision for peace. They must understand that it may be going against the general opinion and perhaps against their very supporters. They need to take bold steps and produce peace for the people of Israel and Palestine.
We must protect Israel, our ally; however, if that protection is based on injustice to either Palestinians or the Jews, our integrity becomes questionable and peace will rest on doubts. We need to be above reproach. Mighty empires can crush the weak for a short term; in the long run every one goes down the tube. We cannot rob anyone and live with a good conscience.
We must watch out for the hate mongers, who go around campus to campus, pulpit to pulpit spreading chaos, causing people to entrench in hate and bring untold miseries to the world. Of course, they will sucker you into investing in their campaign. These carriers of hate will frighten you and get you to open your pocket book. Creating chaos for others is guaranteed to envelope us. Before you write the check, please ask them to spend their time on spreading peace instead.
It is time for the silent majority to speak up and act on. The State department has not had fresh thinking for over 50 years now, every one that comes in including an individual like Collin Powell, has succumbed to the brain washing. They just don't want to push the REFRESH button.
Once the Palestinian Israel conflict is resolved, much of the frustration and terrorism around the world would thaw out.
I invite you to join me in offering practical solutions, with injustice towards none. If you feel there is an imbalance speak up. I urge you become the mitigators of conflicts and not provocateurs.
You cannot have peace when others are not, and you cannot have securitywhen others don't. It is in every one's interests to drop the prejudices and seriously look for peace. What is good for one has got to be good for the other and vice-versa, if not it is short-lived.
A blog is created to bring some sense to the peace process, and it is: http://peace-palestine-israel.blogspot.com
2 comments:
Dear Mike,
I commend you for your simple yet sensible approach to world issues especially those concerning us muslims.
I pray to Allah subhana watahala to continuously grant you the wisdom and perseverance to get this important message out: The world will know peace only when equality, equity, justice, sensitivity, compassion, tolerance and other positive attributes guide our thoughts, words and deeds (especially so for world leaders whose actions have massive multiplier effects).
Best wishes,
Remi,
Lagos, Nigeria
FROM MAHMOOD ELAHI
The Editor
The Ottawa Sun
Copy to Mr. Mike Ghouse, with reference to the article "Annapolis conference without Hamas."
With Hamas determined to destroy Israel, there can be no peace in the Middle East
Re: "Sham, here we go again," by Prof Salim Mansur, professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario (Nov. 24).
Prof. Salim Mansur is absolutely right when he says: "The plain truth about such Mideast conferences is the ganging up of the Arab states against Israel as a show of verbal force on the diplomatic front to compensate for their miserable record on wars they have precipitated with the one lonely outpost of democracy in their midst. ... The great lie [about Israeli occupation] repeatedly told in the Midest, and swallowed whole or in part in the West, is that the United States' unconditional support for Israel stands in the way of peace in the region. ... What is implicit in this lie is the meaning of just peace. For Arab supporters of Hamas, Hezbollah and Al Qaeda, just peace requires the rollback of Israel."
Hamas has rejected all calls for recognizing Israel and enter into negotiations as Fatah has done to end the conflict. For Hamas, the lost territories mean all of Israel and not simply Gaza and West Bank. In fact, Hamas considers Fatah as a traitor for recognizing Isreal and enetring into negotiation with it. Recent attacks on supporters of Fatah by Hamas gunmen, killing six and injuring 75 Fatah supporters, shows that Hamas is not even ready to accept Fatah as a partner. Although Hamas is not invited to attend the conference, it can wreck the conference outcome by resuing its rocket attacks on Israeli towns and by unleashing its suicide bombers in the West Bank, provoking massive Israeli retaliatory strikes.
As George Orwell once remarked that peace for totalitarian groups means war and war is peace, for Hamas peace means the destruction of the Jewish state. And by winning the election and ousting Fatah from the Gaza Strip, Hamas has shown that it has enough Palestinian support to undo any peace process which is not to its liking.
MAHMOOD ELAHI
Ottawa
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