Loving Peace

The United States of America – the world’s own dirty Harry – announced a peace conference that would be held in autumn. The hopes are not high, however, diplomacy seems to be alert and in preparation for a possible achievement. Of course this achievement will not be peace in the Middle East; this is no longer a strategic goal for the big players.

Ever since the conference was announced the judges are preoccupied in determining who is with peace, and who is blocking the course of peace. Of course Syria and Iran are the main suspects in the “against peace” case, while Israel is the peace loving one.

I find it hard for a human being blessed with a minimum of brain capacities not to see the paradox and the hypocrisy in the Western stance towards Israel, not to mention the blatantly arrogant Israeli one.

Since this peace conference had been announced Israel has committed every crime, gesture, and utterance that blocks any eventuality of peace in the Middle East. To cite just a few of these crimes and assaults we can start with the most obvious:

Israel did an air-raid against a Syrian target, regardless of the target this is an illicit act, that has no possible justification (the ridiculous accusation that the target was a nuclear facility the North Koreans are building is far fetched, especially that there was no radioactive contamination in the aftermath – any excuse, any, does not justify the attack). Israel declared that it will not discuss the Golan Heights in the peace conference, in other words it does not want to discuss peace with Syria (even though Syria is supposed to be the “other” party in any peace agreement), but of course Syria is to blame (for whatever reason, but then again who needs reasons, Syria is Arab so it is wrong). Yesterday Israel confiscated large areas of Palestinian land (the excuse is that it is for “military reasons”, of course “military” cannot explain its reasons because then it becomes “military secrets” – see the news about the American court’s refusal of dealing with the case of a man who was kidnapped in Europe, sent to a secret American prison in Afghanistan, tortured, held captive for more than 5 months, and then released because it turned out it was a mistake. The man sued the US government but the case was refused in the US because it might reveal State secrets about secret prisons, and therefore might affect national security. How does concealing a crime (secret prisons and torture) becomes a licit way to fight another – unlawfully I might add – will remain a mystery for me.). This confiscation divides the West Bank into two parts (so now the Palestine of the future will not consist of two divided parts – Gaza and the West Bank – but of three, maybe now Fateh and Hamas will have to find a third party to take over the third part, and thus form a third “legitimate” government). Israel, who accuses Palestinians and “non-moderate” Arabs of not respecting their commitments, had made a commitment to the US in 2005 that this project of large-scale settlements in the West Bank will be cancelled.

Nonetheless, and despite all these “unimportant” actions, Israel is the peace loving country in the Middle East, the “only democracy” in the Middle East (of course a racist democracy where the State is basically an army without uniform, building an Apartheid, killing civilians, and having the largest prison in the world in Gaza, but these are also unimportant details), and the innocent victim that is unable to defend itself because of aggressive neighbors such as Syria.

The problem is that saying Syria is worse is simply irrelevant.