| The
Palestine Solution
by Dr. M. Amir Ali, Ph.D. Muslims have been the best friends of the Jews between the years 638 and 1917 C.E. Judaism's Golden Age was Muslim Spain and Silver Age was Muslim Persia. However, with the rise of Zionism in 1897 relationships between Muslims and Jews began to sour, and with the Balfour Declaration of 1917 the battle plans of the Zionists were in place. Muslims and Arabs share no responsibility for the beginning of this hostility against them and the beginning of terrorism in Palestine by the Zionist terrorists. What is Zionism?Let us see what the founders of Zionism have to say about their designs.
"A partial Jewish State is not the end, but only the beginning,
I am certain that we can not be prevented from settling in the other
parts of the country and region."
"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation
and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab
population."
"The Promised Land extends from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates.
It includes parts of Syria and Lebanon."
"We shall reduce the Arab population to a community of woodcutters
and waiters."
Then they (Avin Shapiro and his 12 Jewish gangsters on Hwy 60 near
Hebron) waited for a vehicle to arrive. As they crouched in a ditch
beside the road, Shapiro, the leader of the group, gave the settlers
orders: Surround any taxi, ''open fire'' and kill as many of the
''blood-sucking Arab'' passengers as possible. ''We are doing what (Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon promised but has failed to do: drive these
sons of Arab whores from the Land of Israel," said Shapiro,
42, who moved here with his wife and four children 3 years ago from
Brooklyn. ''If he (Ariel Sharon) won't get rid of the Muslim filth,
then we will.'' ……. Nearby (Hebron), Nafez Bani Jaber, 45, was
burying all 123 of his sheep. He says they were poisoned last week
after 10 Jewish extremists chased him off his fields. Israeli police
say they have found needles dipped in poison that they believe the settlers
used on the sheep. Police say poison also was dumped down a nearby well
that Palestinians use. ''First they poisoned the sheep. Next will
be the children,'' Jaber says. ''These are war crimes.''
Often, the violence directed at the Palestinians is aimed at their Muslim
faith. Settlers have spray painted graffiti reading ''Mohammed is
a homosexual,'' referring to the Islamic prophet, and painted Jewish
Stars of David on the walls of the local Arab market. They also have
surrounded Muslim women and tried to rip off their Islamic headscarves
and body veils, human rights groups say. Samar Abdul-Shafti, 36,
a Palestinian mother of two, was photographed last month trying to escape
several settlers who were beating her as they tried to remove her headscarf.
It has happened two other times since then, she says, revealing bruises
on her arms, legs and forehead. ''The Jews are trying to do to us what
was done to them during the Holocaust,'' Shafti says. ''They
must not be allowed to drive us from our homes. Someone must help.'' Muslim Response The freedom of Palestine from the clutches of foreign occupation is not an easy task, especially when we find that the only Super Power of the world, the U.S., is in unconditional support of the occupation forces. The other major powers of the world are also supporting the occupation forces in Palestine but with some loose conditions which may not be acceptable to the natives of Palestine. A successful strategy for the freedom of Palestine must take into account the causes of support of the occupation forces. A complete and detailed analysis of history and the present is essential before we can develop a comprehensive solution to the problem. This author would like to present his analysis of the situation and suggest a solution to the problem. Every complicated problem has many components and each component has its own solution. If we divide a problem into its components and solve each component separately, we come up with a comprehensive solution to a complex problem. Palestine, a simple problem of dislocation of the natives by the foreign occupation forces has been turned into a complex problem by Islam-hating and Arab-hating world forces, and sometimes by unwise strategies of the natives in solving the problem. Palestine should not be seen as a problem of the natives of Palestine but that of humankind in the struggle to establish justice, equity and human rights, especially for the Muslim world, for this land has been declared to be the holy land in the Qur'an 5:21. The Problem Israel was built upon the land and homes of the Palestinian natives who were exiled through terrorism, murder and plunder. Israel continues to survive under the same conditions it was created; Israel is a colonial power. Israel was established with the mighty European and American guns, intelligence and guidance. Palestine is a Muslim-Arab land under the occupation of a European-American colonial power. The problem is devising a strategy to free this land and its people from the clutches of a mighty European-American colonial power. The Palestine problem has three main components: political, economic, and religious. Politically, the Zionists have duped the world into supporting Israel as a just cause for the oppressed people, meaning the Jews, of the world. The Zionists have successfully been able to fool the world by showing themselves as the oppressed good guys and the natives of Palestine as the oppressive bad guys. The Muslim world has to change this mis-perception and show the truth to the world. During the early period of Zionism the world was told the lie that the Jews were a people without a land and Palestine was a land without a people. The Balfour Declaration was perhaps the result of this hoax. The Jews of Europe were offered Uganda, Madagascar and other lands but the Zionists insisted upon Palestine because it was a land "without any people". This historical lie must be exposed to the world, thereby removing the pretext for the foundation of Israel. Besides, the Jews were not an oppressed people nor a people without land. In fact, the Jews at the turn of 20th century have been people with immense economic and political power in the Americas and Europe except for a brief period under Nazism. Once the Nazis were defeated and destroyed the problem for the Jews and other oppressed people in Europe was resolved and the question of a Jewish home was redundant. The other political lie is that Israel is an island of democracy and freedom in the ocean of Arab tyranny and dictatorship. Only recently the world is becoming aware of Israeli "excesses" in search of its "security". Israeli "excesses" are excused due to concerns for its "security". The Security of Israel is deemed more important than the security of the Americans, whereas the security of Palestinians is as important as the security of snakes and scorpions in the eyes of American politicians. The world must be told that the foundation of Israel is racism and religious intolerance. Israel is a multi-layered segregated society which is rooted in class, race and religion. Arabs and Muslims especially are kept in ghettos established behind barbed wires, watchtowers, checkpoints and military surveillance. Israel is an imperialist colonial power and Arabs are its subjects to be ruled, misruled, exploited, persecuted, plundered and murdered. Israel is given the most modern military equipment so that it remains a Super Power of the Middle East, and all Arabs states are being rendered subservient to the Israelis. Even American foreign policy towards Arab and Muslim-majority countries has been made a slave to Israeli wishes. It is becoming increasingly apparent that American foreign policy is made in Israel. One piece of evidence is that American immigration visas are offered in plenty to the Palestinians so that there is a population shift in favor of Israel. This population shift policy is very shrewd and care is taken that no western country receives too many Palestinians who could become a political force with which to reckon. Efforts are going on to distribute Palestinians all over the world so that they can melt away in the culture of their host countries and do not become a political voice in favor of Palestine. To enforce such a policy many European countries are offering immigrant visas to the Palestinian educated elite. The genesis of this "solution" is in the paganism of nationalism. The West fails to see Palestinians as a part of the Muslim Ummah and shifting the population will never resolve the problem. In terms of the region, there are only four million Jews in the middle of 200 million Arabs in the Middle East. In the worldwide population there are under fifteen million Jews and over 1.2 billion Muslims. The shortsightedness of the West is in not seeing the proportion of the population of the Jews vs. the populations of the Arabs and the Muslims. The West desires to suppress the problem by the brute military and economic force granted to the Israelis. One example is that amendments to the immigration laws adopted by the Clinton-Gore administration in 1996 was according to the dictates of the Israelis. This law has at least two anti-Muslim components. These are (a) Secret Evidence Law to arrest, harass, imprison and deport those Muslims who enter the U.S. and that the Israelis identify of being suspects of "terrorism", and (b) to stop the growth of the Muslim population in the U.S. by selectively denying visas to them; here an exception is made for those Palestinians living in Palestine. Profiling at the airports is another law designed to harass the Muslims whether they are U.S. citizens or not. In addition, there are plans in-waiting for turning these policies into laws and establishing regulation for the internment of the Muslim leadership in the U.S. on mere suspicion of "wrong doing" in the eyes of the Israelis. In effect, the U.S. government has submitted itself in servitude to Zionist desires, without consulting the American people through polls or referenda after an exhaustive and honest discussion of the issue in the media. Bush deceived the Muslims when he pledged to remove or weaken the Secret Evidence Law; instead he made it even worse which may be in conflict with the U.S. Constitution. The Oslo Peace Accord was a sham. The goal of this accord was to start a civil war among the Palestinians, with Yasser Arafat acting as an oppressor bully for Israel and the U.S., killing all Islamists and freedom lovers who would resist slavery. Yasser Arafat and the PLO read the fine print and did not submit to the wishes of the colonial powers. These colonial powers have not given up yet and they continue to instigate civil war, which they are now demanding openly. Economically, Israel is a socialist country for the Jews and an imperial power for the Arabs. The distribution of wealth is extremely unequal. The bulk of the wealth and economic power is in the hands of Ashkenazi (European) Jews, after which is the next lower class, the Sephardic (darker complexion) Jews, after which is the black (African and American) Jews and then the share in the wealth stops. The Arabs receive only crumbs. There is a systematic effort to deny education and economic opportunities to Arabs and render them into a mean and lowly labor class like the untouchables of India. Arab farms, businesses, backyard groves and crops are destroyed systematically, their schools and colleges are closed, electricity, water and sewer systems are always inadequate, and their homes are frequently razed under the false pretext of security. These are efforts to render Arabs a dalit-class (new term for the untouchables), like Indians. American economic aid to Israel goes to the Jews and not a single penny is filtered down to the Arabs. Israelis receive over $1,500 dollars annually for every Jewish man, woman and child, free of taxes, at the expense of the American poor. How would the American people like to receive a gift of $1,500 from Uncle Sam annually for every adult and child in the family? Why doesn't the U.S. government pay $1,500 for each adult and child of the poorest five million families in the U.S.? Over six billion dollars annually are squandered by American politicians; it is money that could have helped millions of the poor in the U.S. Israel is the only country in the world that receives American tax-deductible donations for political purposes. It is noteworthy that American donations for the welfare and education of Palestinians are illegal under the false pretext of terrorism. American aid to Israel per capita as well as in absolute figures is the highest in the world. No other country in the world receives as much American tax-free dollars as Israel. In terms of religion, Islam is being defamed systematically in support of Judaism. American people are ignorant of Islam and the enemies of Islam are defining Islam, which is presented to the ignorant 99% of the American population. Islam is defamed and Muslims are demonized. After decades of persistent efforts by the enemies of Islam, the term Islam has become synonymous with terrorism and Muslim is a synonym for evil. Thanks are due to George Bush for making declarations to decouple Islam from terrorism and Muslim from evil, yet he is shamelessly fighting against Islam and Muslims. While all of this is going on, the Muslims of America have become indifferent, complacent and are acting like ostriches. Only Muslim Americans have the duty of removing ignorance through the education of America. Muslim Americans must have vision, which should be translated into plans and projects for implementation. Whatever money and manpower it takes to complete such plans and projects is cheap compared to the price the Muslims of the world are paying now. The discrimination of American Muslims is a small problem compared to the sufferings of Palestinians, Kashmiris, Chechens, Kosovars, Bosnians, Sudanese, Afghanis, Iraqis and rest of the Muslim world. The anti-Islam campaign on religious grounds is being escalated by Secular Fundamentalists, Christian Fundamentalists, the Zionists and Hindu Fundamentalists. These campaigns are joined by the millions of ignorant people due to the vacuum of support of Islam. I have written on this topic and my articles are available. A book under the title: ISLAMOPHOBIA IN AMERICA, A MODERN PANDEMIC, by this writer, is under preparation as of January 2002. The Solution The real solution for Palestine is not in Palestine, not in Israel, but in the United States, particularly in the hands of Muslims living in America. All Palestinians living in their country can do is to resist enslavement and to never surrender their right of freedom and keep their struggle alive at any cost to their lives, property, educational opportunities, economy and every other way. Palestinians should never submit to the will of imperialist powers, whether it is Israel, U.S. or anti-Islam Turkey. Muslims in America must work hard to change public opinion in America from anti-Islam, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian to understanding, knowing the truth and supporting justice. Only a change in public opinion will force American politicians to change their policies in support of justice and the rights of Palestinians. This shift is possible within ten years, provided the Muslims of America can pool their resources and make a concerted effort. The 9-11 incident has raised a lot of interest in Islam and the Muslims of America should not lose the opportunity of reaching out to the American people. Cutting the Supply Line: In a war situation, a successful general defending his land finds the supply line of the invading armies and cuts it. In Palestine, it is the invading army that has cut supply lines of the natives from all sides and they are living under siege. Muslims have a war situation in Palestine. We find that the invading army is infinitely superior to the natives in terms of technology, heavy war equipment, economy and all necessary resources. The origin of their supply line is the U.S., which Muslim Americans can cut within ten years. In addition, occupation forces in Palestine control the media in the West which gives them the power of excellent public relations and publicity, thereby molding world public opinion in their favor. However, Muslims live in the belly of the U.S. and have the power of reaching out to the population directly and changing the public opinion through their own teach-in process. Anti-Vietnam war activists turned public opinion enough to bring the war to a close. The Muslim leadership must study anti-Vietnam war activities and use all those strategies, which were legal and conform to Islamic teachings. Muslim Americans are allies of the natives of Palestine and we have a duty to help. American Muslims have the power to put a squeeze on the supply line to Israel so much so that in time it is cut off, thus bringing the war and occupation to an end. The truth is powerful and as people get the message they will begin to embrace the truth and we can effectively shrink support for Israel until it begins to show in the elections. It would be a multi-level campaign involving people, media, politicians, businesses, the entertainment industry and academics. Each of the three components of the problem, political, economic and religious, and all their sub-components, must be solved separately by specialized teams. This work would certainly involve a number of professional specialists and a large number of volunteers to do the main leg-work. The main goal is to educate the masses of the West and reduce political, economic and military support for Israelis by the respective governments of Europe and America under the pressure of the voters. Political Solution. The political solution is composed of five parts: (a) Historical and geographical truths must be established and the fraud of the Israelis, the western governments and the media should be exposed to the population of the West. This would reduce the support for Israel in the respective voting population including the U.S. (b) The myth created by the Zionists and their supporters that Israel is an island of democracy has to be exposed. It must be established in the minds of the people of the West that Israel is a brute, oppressive and racist colonial power and that the days of colonialism are over for good. Furthermore, we have to establish the fact and take it to every voter's home that the Clinton-Gore peace initiative was a fraud and was nothing more than the legitimization of Israeli imperialism over the Palestinians through pacts. The failure of the Clinton-Gore peace initiative is a blessing for the world and was a rejection of the imperialism and hegemony of Israel. (c) The population of the West must be made aware of the strategic value of the Arabs and Muslims and that removing the Israeli thorn from the body of the Muslims is in the best interests of the West and the world peace. As long as the West supports Israeli imperialism in the Middle East, the West, including the U.S., will remain in an adversarial relationship with the Muslim world, not just the Arab world. (d) The military assistance given to Israel is most hazardous for the peace of the world and is more hazardous to the West than the rest of the world. The U.S. has made Israel arrogant through its military aid and Israel is not willing to make peace with the Palestinians. The source of the problem of Israel is the U.S. in particular and the West in general. We have to bring this point home to every American voter. The misperception created by the Clinton-Gore administration in collusion with the media that Arafat and the Palestinians are responsible for the absence of peace is false. On August 6, 2001 the Charlie Rose Show on PBS had two Zionists under the guise of American envoys to Israel and the Middle East and Rashid Khalidi of the University of Chicago discussing Palestine-Israeli issues. It was ironic to see three Zionists talking to a Muslim professor and all three acting like neutral peace seekers. In fact, all three were propagating the Israeli point of view and Rashid Khalidi alone was making some sense. This kind of false propaganda is found all over America. The mind set in America is that the Israelis are not capable of doing anything wrong whereas the Palestinians are not capable of doing anything right. Muslim Americans have the responsibility of changing this mindset. (e) There is a political move of shifting the population of Palestine in favor of Israel. The plan is to bring more Jews into Israel and move Palestinians out. The first stage is to harass, persecute and kill Palestinians so that their lives in Palestine become unbearable and they begin to think of moving out. The second stage is to buy their educated and professionals' migration to the West. In the Third World everyone wants to migrate to the West, particularly to the U.S. Whereas visas to the West are extremely difficult for the Muslims to obtain, such visas are being offered with perks to the Palestinian elite. The hope is that all Palestinians with education, means and leadership qualities will move out. The third stage is the mass murders of Palestinian activists and the elimination of the resistance to slavery under Israeli occupation. Palestinian leadership is targeted for murder and total elimination, leaving alive only the traitors. The poor, uneducated and meek who remain behind will do menial labor jobs for the Israelis and will receive pittance in compensation, thereby creating a permanent fourth class of Dalit in Israel as mentioned above. Finally, when all resistance has been killed, the Zionists will occupy Haram Shareef, destroy Masjid al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock and build a Jewish temple as the center of the Jewish world, which is under fifteen million people and declining. Muslim Americans have a duty to expose these plans and recruit supporters in the American population against the implementation of these criminal projects which are being pursued in collusion with the American politicians, the media, Hindu Fundamentalists and Fundamentalist Christians. Economic Solution. The economic solution has four components: (a) The West should know that Israel is a socialist country for the Jews and an imperialist power for the Arabs, whether they are Christians, Muslims, or Arabs who have no religious preference. Arabs have no share in the economy of Israel whether they are technically citizens of Israel or Palestinians. Israel has a Hindu style four-class society and each class has a share according to their class. In this four-class society Arabs are at the bottom, deserving of no share. Muslims have a duty to bring this knowledge to every home in the West. (b) Since the establishment of Israel the U.S. has contributed directly or indirectly over 500 billion dollars to Israel. Taxpayers in the U.S. must know that the billions of dollars that go to Israel are poured into the pockets of the Jews only. Muslim Americans have a duty to show to the American voters and the poor people of America how their share in the billions is squandered away by the politicians instead of spending to help the American poor. In America there are people without a place to live, children who are malnourished, schools without adequate equipment or resources and there are many other problems, but no money is going to them while we are squandering billions for the Israelis. In addition, we can show that there are poor Africans in the continent who need money for food and shelter whereas Americans are helping Israel to displace Palestinians and creating luxurious suburbs and housing enclaves for the Jews. AIDS in Africa needs billions but there is no money because Israel takes up so much of the American resources. We need to publish these data to inform the American people. (c) Muslim Americans should help their Palestinian brethren financially directly. It is a duty of the Muslims to raise funds and help to relieve Palestinians of their economic misery created by the Israelis and American government's bad policies. However, a few million that we can send them is nowhere near enough to solve their economic miseries. The real solution is to give them the economic freedom that we enjoy in the U.S., which brings us to the next point: (d) Economic freedom for the Palestinians to pursue their trade without harassment, roadblocks, checkpoints, missiles, shootings and other blockades. Arabs in Palestine are a class of outcasts in their own homes; the occupation of Palestine must come to an end. If American people learn about the living conditions of Palestinians, they will support the Palestinian cause. It is up to the Muslims living in America to use their freedom to take this message to every home in America. Religious Solution: The religious solution has three aspects: (a) The perception in the West is that Judaism is a religion of the West but Islam is not. There are many unbiased reputable writers in the West who admit to the contribution of Islam to western civilization and history. Muslims need to do research in this area and present the data to the world in common language so that they understand and appreciate, for example, the crusades and the impact of Muslim civilization on the European reformation and renaissance. Many historians of the West have written about the impact of the interaction between European Crusaders and Muslims. Western culture is a Pagan-Greek-Roman-Christian-Muslim-Judeo-plus-more culture. American people are unaware of this truth. (b) Western secularism has little tolerance for a religious state, particularly for an Islamic state. Post 9-11 American-British policies of war is an effort against Islam, that is, preventing the establishment of Islam as an ideology competing against the paganism of capitalism. However, the West supports the Jewish religious state of Israel; I call this hypocrisy of democracy. The American people must know that the intolerant secular U.S. is committed to support the religious Jewish state of Israel! The hypocrisy of American policy must be brought home and shown to the people that their government opposes the Islamization of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Sudan but vehemently supports a Jewish state in the middle of the Muslim world. (c) There is a hate campaign against Islam and Muslims. I receive a lot of mail from ordinary American people who are filled with hate of Islam because they are victims of a hate campaign launched by various sections of the American society. It is a duty of the Muslim Americans to prove to the American people that they may be victims of a hate-Islam campaign. In my view, American people are decent people and they will support the truth when they know it. It is up to the Muslims to bring the message of truth home. Vision, Plans and their Implementation A people without a vision is a dead people. It is fard kifayah (community duty) that the leadership of the Ummah in the U.S. develop a vision for a century and translate it into plans and develop machinery for their implementation. It means having a vision of America through Muslim eyes for the year 2101 C.E. and develop a road to get there. It will remain a dream if we just talk about our vision. This 100 year vision must be translated into plans divided into 5, 10, 20 years and so on, popularize it in the community, gather resources of money and manpower to educate, motivate and mobilize Muslims of America for its implementation. I have a ten-year vision, that is, to see America in 2011 without prejudice, hate and fear of Islam and Muslims. Implementation Strategies This complex problem has many component parts and they must be separated and analyzed as such. All components must be resolved separately by specialized teams in coordination with each other. The end result will be the solution to this complex problem. The cornerstone of the Palestine solution is the education of the masses in the West, particularly, the Americans. In an Internet publication I cannot discuss details but if a Coordination Council for Palestine is formed or one of the existing relevant organizations calls a meeting, I will be glad to discuss the details in person. Without going into the details I float the following proposals. It goes without saying that each of the committees discussed below must have a liberal budget and a supporting staff. Funds should be raised from Muslim as well as non-Muslim sources, even relevant trusts should be approached for funding. 1. TV Talk Show Committee: This committee will consist of a few well-informed leaders with appealing appearances, light or no accent, somewhat aggressive but cool tempered, skilled in brevity and possess the ability to articulate points well. These are the people who will be our face and our front, addressing the American people. The job of the committee members is to seek appearance opportunities on TV talk shows at the local and national levels and articulate the Muslim point of view on Palestine and other issues in a very amicable manner. This committee must have a small staff that will manage talk show appearances and make travel and lodging arrangements. 2. Radio Talk Show Committee: This committee will consist of the people with qualifications as discussed above except appearance will not be as important as for TV talk shows. The job of the committee is like that of the TV Committee but these people will go on radio talk shows at the local and national levels. The job of the staff of these two committees is to work with public relations and publicity companies, paying fees when required and obtaining appointments for our people to appear on talk shows, from small local stations to large networks. The important thing is to be identified as Muslims who represent their own points of view most of the time but, sometimes, when relevant, speak on behalf of Muslim Americans. When there is no unanimity of the Muslims on a given topic, they should speak on their own behalf, speak on behalf of the Ummah or present a majority or minority view as the situation suits best. 3. Print Media Committee: This committee will consist of people who have print media relations skills. The job of this committee is to develop rapport with media executives, from reporters to editors, and ask them to publish articles of our interest. Articles may be written by non-Muslim or Muslim writers but their widest and frequent circulation is the key for dissemination of ideas and true information. Target publications will leave out none, ranging from small community newsletters to major national newspapers and magazines. Such articles may appear on op-ed pages, opinion columns, letters to the editor, Sunday edition newspaper magazines, weekly and monthly magazines, etc. 4. Entertainment Industry Committee: National TV networks, public TV networks, Hollywood and many small producers are producing movies and a variety of shows for TV and the silver screen. There must be a committee to find out who is who in this industry, develop rapport with them, screen all shows for Muslim related content and suggest corrections even before such errors become public knowledge. To go one step further, they would suggest and initiate production of shows sympathetic to Muslims. The work must start somewhere and our people will learn the ropes. According to Jack Shaheen, the entertainment industry is continually producing shows with anti-Muslim, anti-Islam and anti-Arab content, which has a devastating effect on the ignorant population. Reportedly, Israeli advisors work alongside many producers advising them how to insert pro-Israeli and anti-Islam content in their shows. 5. History Research Committee: This committee would be composed of historians and those who have an interest and aptitude in history. Their job would be to research the historical foundation of Israel and the hoaxes, misinformation, dis-information and myths spread by the Zionists and thereby present the facts in a variety of articles and books. They would provide this material to the Print Media Committee, discussed above, for publication and circulation among the American population. The scope of this committee’s research is wide and covers almost all items discussed under the sub-title, "Political Solution", some aspects of "Economic Solution" and "Religious Solution" discussed above. Those who will go on TV and radio talk shows should also gain benefits of the research. 6. Al-'Awdah Coordination Council: The purpose of this council will be stopping the mobilization of the Palestinians from Palestine to elsewhere including Europe and the Americas. Moreover, this committee must mobilize Palestinians living abroad to go back to Palestine, even if they can get to Gaza and the West Bank as a first step. The goal should be to return them to their ancestral homes wherever it may be. 7. Welfare Coordination Council for Palestine: At this time many welfare organizations who were raising funds are being closed down. The work of the council should be to help reestablish welfare organizations, set priorities for help and assign areas for each of them. In addition, this council should audit and oversee accounts to make sure that the funds are not misused. Some Muslim governments are also helping in the welfare area but without any coordination. Government help is generally politically motivated; it is therefore necessary to get politics out of the welfare work. Funds should also be sought from the non-Muslim population which will induce and propel their political support. Due to the American government’s apprehension of terrorism since the 9-11, it is best to work in cooperation with the U.S. and U.N. relief agencies rather than working independently. 8. Lobby Organization: There are already several lobby organizations but their close coordination, if there is any, is not well publicized. When we talk about lobby, we mean lobbying on behalf of Palestine at the local, county, state and federal government levels. Each organization must have their purpose and methodology clearly stated and seek the cooperation of the people, whether Muslim or non-Muslim. 9. Campus Teach-in Coordination Committee: One of the most successful strategies of the Vietnam War era was campus teach-ins. Committees were formed and scholars were brought in to inform university and college students about the realities of the war and expose the lies told by the U.S. administration to the public. This included movies and pictures showing the horrors created by the U.S. government and its allies in Vietnam including all forms of destruction as a result of the war. Finally, public awareness and a change of public opinion resulted in protest marches which brought the war to an end. Muslim Americans should move on the same lines and join hands with non-Muslims who are in sympathy with Palestinians, such as, Not In My Name, a Jewish organization. There are many churches, including Catholics and Protestants, who do not like the Israeli atrocities and are willing to join Palestinian efforts. The only Christian religious group that is more Zionist than the Jewish Zionists is the Fundamentalist Christians, who should be left alone. 10. Movement for Muslim Political Participation: This is a double challenge: (a) to wake up the Muslim Americans from their deep slumber of indifference, apathy and complacence, and (b) defeating anti-political participation movements of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir and other passive anti-politics groups, such as, Tablighi Jama'at, Tanzeem-e-Islami, some Sufis and others. In the year 2000 coordination for political participation developed but it must be expanded to include indigenous American Muslims and perfected, making it a year-round movement until close to one hundred percent Muslim Americans are activated, educated and mobilized. See my articles A CASE FOR MUSLIM POLITICAL PARTICIPATION and AMERICAN POLITICAL SCENE AND MUSLIM AMERICANS. 11. Movement for Islam Awareness and Education of the Masses: This is the cornerstone of the whole work. If Muslims fail in bringing the American masses to understanding Islam and Muslims and an overwhelming majority supporting Muslim issues, the whole work will fail. This requires money, manpower, technology and intensive training. At the national level, the Institute of Islamic Information & Education (III&E) began this work as an organization in 1985 and launched field work in 1986 and has been able to reach over 23 million American people as of January 2002; this is a drop in the bucket because there are another 300 million people of North America yet to be reached. There are many individuals and Islamic organizations contributing to the work at the local level but this work is very nominal. For the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), this work is not a priority; in fact, there is no committee or a department in existence for this work. For the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Da'wah is a part of their program but the actual contribution is nominal and it comes in small bursts at the local level. The III&E is capable of handling this work at the national level but it needs massive money and manpower support from Muslim Americans. For outreach to the non-Muslims, see my article ONE FAMILY A MONTH and THE VISION. 12. Campaign to Educate American People About the Cost of Israel to Them and the World: Recently, Richard Curtis published an article about the Cost of Israel. We need to add some estimates of the worldwide cost of security expenses at airports, skyscrapers, crop dusters, nuclear and utility generators. For example, after 9-11, Bush and the Congress allocated 80 billion dollars to fight terrorism, security and bail outs which should be under the Israelis column. The West attributes most of the terrorism to the Arabs that is rooted mainly in their complaint against the Israeli rule over the Palestinians. If the problem of Palestine is resolved, terrorism will be eliminated and these costs and inconveniences can be removed. We need to publish a book, articles and brochures for mass distribution. This will reduce the support for Israel among American voters and general public. Myopia of Muslim American Leadership Muslim American leadership is already moving in the direction of specialization of work by creating new organizations. ISNA, ICNA and others are providing socio-religious services, AMC has taken over government lobbying work, CAIR is in the area of legal and human rights, AMA and its sister organizations are taking care of political participation and so on. However, this is not enough; none of these activities are going to make a significant change because none of them is working to change American public opinion, one way or the other. In a democracy, such as the U.S., public opinion is pivotal in government policies. Since immigrant Muslim American leadership has come from kingdoms, dictatorships and autocratic rule, they think that influencing top level of the government is going to change everything including government policies. This is not the case in a democracy because the people elect the legislature and administration leadership; therefore, all elected people must conform to the public opinion. There is an excellent example when in 1993 the Clinton Administration wanted to levy the energy tax, which the energy industry did not like. The energy industry, therefore, held hamburger and coke parties in the fifteen smallest states, delivered anti-energy tax speeches and convinced the senators of those states that voting for such a tax would be injurious to their reelection. The energy tax bill was killed in the senate. There is a lesson for the Muslim Americans in the energy industry moves of 1993 in killing the tax proposal. Work in only the fifteen smallest states in population can change foreign policies of the U.S. Lobbying with the American people must precede lobbying with government officials, which includes congressmen, various cabinet secretaries and the president. Recently, George Bush took a trip by boat in the Mississippi River to gain popular support for his economic and tax cut plans. Clinton championed the rule by polls. Reagan took his issues to the masses to generate pressure on the House and the Senate to gain support for his proposals. This is the myopia of the Muslim American leadership that sits in Washington and is satisfied with fast breaking and Eid parties at the White House, meetings with a few Senators and Congressmen and having a Muslim imam do an opening du'aa for the House or the Senate - this is tokenism, not real work. The real work is getting down to the masses and educating them. Muslim leadership is party hungry and party satisfied - goal orientation and tunnel vision is completely lacking. Role of the Palestinians What are the Palestinians supposed to do to resolve the problem? Palestinians can do nothing for solving the problem equitably but keeping the problem alive and on the world stage. Israelis will not settle for any equitable solution as long as they have the unconditional support of the U.S. Only Palestinians have to decide how to keep the problem alive and keep the pressure on the world conscience to help solve the problem with equity and justice for all parties. Israelis and the U.S. want the Palestinians to submit to the lowly status of subjects, rather slaves, of Israelis and live at the mercy of the Zionists, which is not acceptable to Palestinians nor to the Muslims and this should not be acceptable to the world conscience either. Muslim Americans are duty bound to convey and convince the American voters that the Zionist rule over Palestinian people is a crime against humanity and they have the responsibility of freeing them. The Destruction of 9-11 and the Zionist-Bush Spin The Zionists and the Bush government knew very well that the 9-11 was rooted mainly in the Israeli tyranny, whether the attack was carried out by the Israelis (as this author contends) or Arabs (Bush and company claim). However, the Zionists and Bush team completely bypassed the core issues of Israel, American propping up of tyrant dictators in the Muslims world, and blamed the Arabs and Osama Binladin's jealousy of freedom and liberty enjoyed by the American people and their prosperity - a totally ridiculous Clintonian spin. Only shameless liars would give a spin like this and only ignorant people would believe in it; see my article THE GULLIBILITY INDEX. It is the duty of Muslim and Arab Americans to present the truth and educate the American masses to remove American support for Israel. As an informed American lady in Chicago commenting about 9-11 said, "if this is the cost of supporting Israel, we do not want to support it." If the American people are educated, a majority would agree with her, this will provide a solution to the Israeli problem. It is not Israeli intransigence that is the problem but the concept of Zionism itself which is the enemy of mankind. I reiterate again, Jews are people like any other people and they deserve to live in peace and Muslims have been historically supportive of Jews rights and the freedom to practice their religion. It was the second Caliph Umar ibn Al-Khattab who in 638 C.E. allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and worship at the Wailing Wall. Between 70 and 638 C.E. Jews were forbidden to enter Jerusalem by the Roman pagan empire and later by the Christian Byzantine Empire. Look at the payback by the Jews to the Arabs since 1917! Written July-August 2001. Reviewed and updated January 2002. Some information taken from http://resistance.jeeran.com/members/resistance/zionism/.
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