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14 TELLING IT AS IT IS theSun | WEDNESDAY JANUARY 14 2009

speak up!
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t h e s u n s a y s
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The world must never
letters@thesundaily.com

Negotiate a lasting peace

I REFER to calls to boycott the US and to stop
using the US dollar. How will this solve the
problem in the Middle East? Have those making
these proposals forgotten that it was the US that
was instrumental in creating and protecting the
state of Kosovo, a Muslim majority nation in
Europe? Could any Arab or Islamic country have
achieved such a feat? It is time for all concerned
to stop playing politics and find a solution for the
sufferings of the Palestinians.
Each time there is a conflict there, we hear
the same old cries of boycotts, resolutions, dem-
onstrations and press releases from the UN and
politicians worldwide. Once the conflict ends,
every one returns to normal and forgets about it
until the next conflict, which is inevitable, as the
causes of the conflict remain simmering.
While our hearts cry out for the innocent
children and other victims, the Arabs in general
and the Palestinians in particular, must ask them-
selves some honest questions. What is the point
in provoking Israel, knowing that they do not
have a ghost of a chance of defeating Israel?
How has the recent firing of rockets, that
cannot even reach their targets, strengthen their
position? Unless they can match Israel’s military
might, it is in the interest of their people that the
Palestinian leadership negotiate the best deal pos-
sible, given the fact that most of the major world
powers are on the side of Israel.
They should then use the opportunity to build
up their economy, provide education and health
facilities for their children. This next generation
will be in a better position to fight for their rights.
At the moment the children and youth are being
wasted and in war, their misfortune becomes
propaganda material. No Arab nation has come
to their assistance since the Six-day War, when
the Arabs were humiliated in battle and none is
capable of doing so today, as a number of them
rely on US financial and military assistance for
their very survival.
Neither Hamas nor Hezbollah can bring
peace or relief to the long-suffering Palestinians,
by firing rockets. Lebanon was almost destroyed
as a consequence of the firing of such rockets by
Hezbollah.
I pray that common sense will prevail and the
suffering will be brought to a speedy end.
Ajit Singh Jessy
Penang
forget the Palestinians
IT MUST have awed many of us that our po-
litical leaders, especially those we elected to
represent our interests, actually spoke with
one voice in their condemnation of the Israeli
aggression against the Palestinian people. It
is most heartening to know that they can
actually do that when faced with a common
concern. And there are many common con-
cerns especially domestic ones.
But what happened in the Dewan Rakyat
on Monday when one after another of our
MPs, regardless of their political persuasions,
stood up to condemn Israel’s atrocities and
to appeal to the conscience of the world to
do something to censure and bring to an
end the aggression by the Jewish state is
an expression of our common abhorrence.
All spoke to say that we cannot counte-
nance the brutality committed by the Israel
Defence Forces and that we are united in
condemning it. None expressed it better
than PAS president Datuk Abdul Hadi Awang
when he said: “We may be locked in combat
in the ongoing Kuala Terengganu by-election
but on this issue we are united.” Israel may
claim that it was provoked into doing what
it is doing but to respond by mobilising its
military juggernaut – its efficient Arab killing
machine – against an almost defenceless
people speaks volumes for the attitude of
the Jewish state towards the Palestinians. It
is now a policy of the Israeli state that any
slight injury, no matter how small, caused by
the Palestinians to it or to one or more of its
people will be retaliated with such a force
that will cause immense grief to the Palestin-
ians. It is a policy to frighten the Palestinians
into resigning to the fact that worse things
would happen to them should they attempt
to stand up for their rights.
It is gradually fading from the world’s
memory that Israel was created in 1948 from
what was then Palestine. The Palestinians
were displaced and they had to seek refuge
elsewhere but most moved out to Gaza and
certain enclaves of the West Bank. It is this
settlements that are now referred to as Pal-
estine and administered by an autonomous
Palestinian Authority pending the establish-
ment of an independent state of Palestine.
Real power is exercised by Israel which also
employs the Palestinians. Dispossessed of
the homeland that they had for nearly two
thousand years, the Palestinians are now
pariahs who have been bullied into begging
for their survival from the same people that
forced them out. While we make an effort to
rally the world conscience to end the atroci-
ties we must also help to hasten the process
towards the creation of the sovereign state
of Palestine. We and the rest of the world
must not forget them.