Kushner and Greenblatt making same mistake Begin made in 1977
Analysis of the upcoming Economic Summit in Bahrain on June 25-26 to be led by President Trump’s Middle East “advisers” Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, two fanatic supporters of Israel’s rightwing government policies that have undermined peace.
Kushner and Greenblatt are pursuing an extremist pro-Israel agenda that is designed to undermine the creation of a Palestinian State and create a scenario in which Israel will be further defined as a racist Apartheid state, based on its oppression and subjugation of millions of Christian and Muslim Arabs inside Israel and under occupation in the West Bank, Occupied Jerusalem, and in the Gaza Strip which Israel’s government maintains as the world’s largest open-air prison.
Kushner and Greenblatt hope that by throwing money on the Palestinians and fueling the pro-Israel failed peace process, they will pry Palestinians and the Arab World away from their drive for Palestinian independence, justice and statehood in Palestine.
Arab News Special Correspondent for the U.S. Ray Hanania takes us back to 1977 when a similar effort was made by former Israeli terrorists and Prime Ministers Menachem Begin (Deir Yassin massacre April 9, 1948, 100 Palestinian civilians murdered) and Ariel Sharon (Qibya massacre October 12, 1953, 69 Palestinian civilians murdered) to use finances to build a rival religious force to undermine the fast-growing influence of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Chairman Yasser Arafat.
Hanania explores how Begin and Sharon pump money and political support to quadriplegic Sheikh Ahmad Yassin approving his new organization the Islamic Association and to build a network of religiously-run Village Leagues hoping the new Islamic movement would rival and undermine the secular politics and successes of Arafat internationally. The PLO was declared at the October 1974 Rabat Arab Summit “the sole legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people” and in November 1974 delivered a powerful and compelling (“Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom-fighter’s gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.“) speech to the UN General Assembly.
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Today I have come bearing an olive branch
and a freedom-fighter’s gun. Do not let
the olive branch fall from my hand.
— Yasser Arafat, Nov. 13, 1977 UN General Assembly
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The Village Leagues which became a breeding ground for Palestinian collaborators who were blackmailed or bribed into reporting on the activities of other Palestinians associated with Arafat and the PLO. Many of them held positions of leadership in the Village Leagues and were friendly to Israel.
Yassin used the Village Leagues, which Begin and Sharon hoped to expand into the West Bank, to monitor and undermine supporters of Arafat and the secular PLO.
The Israeli military gave the League members protection from PLO retribution, and widespread powers. As many as 200 of the Village League members were given weapons-training by Israel. Israel’s Shin Bet recruited paid informers from this network and Israeli sources estimated the number of informants were in the thousands. Israel Military Government employed as many as 19,000 Palestinians, with 11,000 of them working as teachers, clerks and administrators.
Of course, we know what happened after that.
On December 9, 1987, Israeli military truck collided with a Palestinian civilian vehicle killing the four Palestinians in the car. Relatives and friends protested the deaths and the failure of Israel to punish the soldiers. Within days, the protests spread throughout the Gaza Strip and West Bank. In what became known as the First Intifada, armed Islamists empowered by Yassin’s the Village Leagues launched Hamas. Yassin was declared a co-founder.
Economic support certainly will help ease some of th esuffering that Israel’s government imposes on Palestinians through Apartheid and racist policies thsat drive the building of illegal Jewish-only settlements and the theft of Christian and Muslim Palestinian lands, but without justice there can never be any peace for Israel. Violence is their future as Israelis continue to pursue policies of hatred against the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.
Begin and Sharon did create a rival, but it was one that would haught both Israelis and Palestinians until today.
Read Ray Hanania’s column on this topic in the Arab News Newspaper by clicking here.
Watch for Hanania’s podcast on this topic at TheArabStreet.org.
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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
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