Friday, January 7, 2011

Erasing Reality: The Invention of "Peace" in the Middle East

Fiamma Nirenstein
Hudson New York
07 January '11

Rather than scrutinizing the Middle East -- where the dream of peace that we so tirelessly hope for keeps evaporating again and again -- we prefer to picture a scenario in which everyone will, in the end, want peace; in which the extremism of the Middle East is only a fantasy dictated by fear, and in which the menace of extremism is called a mere exaggeration.

This clearly springs from the desire to be left in peace -- the same syndrome that convinces us to consider figures like Tarik Ramadan a "moderate Islamist," or to class as a "dialogue between religions" a situation in which, quietly in London, the Islamic courts are gaining ground. We merely shake our heads when we hear that the most popular name in many European countries is now Mohammed, or that the burqa is permitted in the name of multiculturalism; or that over 200,000 people in Paris alone now live in polygamous families.

We subject the real dangers of war to censorship, as with Iran and its quest for a nuclear bomb, its solidifying international hegemony and its attitude towards the rights of women, homosexuals, dissidents and freedom in general, all of which violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The international community still insists on believing that dialogue is possible with Ahmadinejad, whom we have repeatedly heard in the platform of the United Nations inciting the President of the United States to convert to Islam, and declaring his intention to kill all the Jews and extend the dominion of Islam throughout the world. In a month's time, the meeting between Iran and the 5 + 1 group will convene yet again, even though the Iran, with its recent waves of arrests and purges, shows signs of rallying around the atomic project. No one even attempted to help the opposition after the fake election results last year, even though the opposition's size is unquestionable, as millions of people have been desperately demonstrating in Iran's city squares for months.

The USA has remained silent even in the face of the Iranian war-games in the Strait of Hormuz; clear evidence that Iran has extended its war front in Afghanistan; the fact that Iran has prevented the pro-American faction that won the elections in Iraq from forming a government; that Iran imposed the reinstatement of the Prime Minister, Nouri al Maliki; and that Iran has made conspicuous investments in South America to foment an attitude -- now extremist -- and foster Anti-Semitic hate, of which President Chavez of Venezuela is an example.

Iran is frightening, and this is why it is allowed to continue its advance undeterred, frightening us more and more as a result. And this deceptive judgment is enabling Iran to spread its influence to Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and to the Palestinians, as well as to South America.

With the Palestinians, the idea that we like to convey is that of a world in which Fatah, in opposition to Hamas, is amenable to achieving peace through a partition plan that would enable "two States for two Peoples." But this is far from reality: all the most recent statements, including those of a few days ago in which Abu Mazen declared that there would be no room in a Palestinian state for even a single Israeli, or that of his chief negotiator, Sa'eb Erekat, according to whom there would be an inevitable "return" of 7,000,000 refugees – or their grandchildren and great-grandchildren – inside the borders of Israel, which has precisely 7,000,000 inhabitants, including the Arabs; or the declared Palestinian lack of willingness to negotiate land-swaps or to recognize the existence of a Jewish State -- all these are in keeping with what is perhaps the most dramatic rejection of peace: the culture of hate and terrorism which the TV, the press and the Palestinian schools disseminate. Squares bearing the names of suicide terrorists; the Fatah congress opening with standing ovations for the suicide terrorists;, the "study" on the Palestinian Authority website of a Vice-Minister of Culture, who declares that there has never been any trace of Jews in Jerusalem; or the invention of a Palestinian Jesus persecuted by the Jews at a time when the concept of "Palestinians" did not even exist... perhaps all these truths, together with the weakness of Abu Mazen who now wields his power with substantial use of the police force while Hamas threatens him from afar, should remind us that a peaceful end of conflict with Israel might not be a priority.

(Read full "Erasing Reality: The Invention of "Peace" in the Middle East")

Note: Originally published in Italian in Il Giornale, December 30, 2010

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