Zuhdi Shubeitah
العربية

Creating Pain, Manufacturing Despair

The article examines reactions to the first public Israeli commercial flight to the United Arab Emirates on 31-8-2020, critiques normalization efforts and statements by US envoy Jason Greenblatt, and argues that such moves aim to sow despair among Palestinians while urging patience and unity.

العربيةRead the Arabic original

English translation, prepared and reviewed before publication. The Arabic text is authoritative.

Zuhdi ShubeitahBanking executive (former)
Published
Reading time
4 min read
Photo of Zuhdi Shubeitah

- The feeling of Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims and the free people of the world... bitterness on this day was raging.... as they watched the landing of the first Israeli commercial plane at one of the airports of the United Arab Emirates in broad daylight and openly, carrying a delegation of senior Israeli intelligence men who are religious and who wear the "قلنسوه" on their heads... among the delegation headed by Jared Kushner, President Trump's personal envoy and his son-in-law... and the American Middle East peace envoy and national security council chiefs in America and Israel... and what increased the sting of bitterness was the plane's passage through the airspace of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, after its approval for the plane to pass through its skies, and we saw how joy rose on the faces of the plane's passengers from all the officials... as they listened to the aircraft commander speaking about shortening the flight time distance from 7 hours to approximately 3 hours... by passing through Saudi airspace........ in addition to our seeing via news agencies Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu talking to the aircraft commander while it was in Saudi airspace... saying that what is happening is a dream.!!. in reference to the landing of the Israeli plane in broad daylight ..at Abu Dhabi Airport... the capital of the United Arab Emirates... it is a historic scene.... and that what will be done between Israel and Abu Dhabi is the signing of a peace agreement in exchange for peace.!!. without concession of any settlement, and of course no return, from united Jerusalem, and its remaining the capital of historic Israel.... etc .... from phrases meant by Netanyahu, it is the melting and dissolving of any Arab walls resisting the normalization campaign, repeating the assertion that many Arab countries... will join in normalizing their relations publicly with Israel... – according to his saying –

- What such chatter, which hopes to shock and stupefy the Arab and Palestinian will in calculated steps, is trying to reap, is to dose the Arab... and Islamic peoples...with the pain of these shocks and to cement them in minds... to subdue the Arab will.... and to ignore any nod or reference to the Palestinians in this normalization melee.... attempting to spread despair among them. and deceive them into believing they are isolated from their Arab and Islamic world..!

- I followed some comments on Al Jazeera's 9:00 PM news bulletin that day (31-8-2020), and I listened closely to the opinion of Mr. Jason Greenblatt, the former American envoy for peace in the Middle East.. (a religious Zionist) to whom the texts of the Deal of the Century are mainly attributed, and who was also President Trump's adviser on Israel; Mr. Greenblatt did not mention, nor did he hint in his interventions with the Al Jazeera presenter, at the existence of any Israeli occupation... of the Palestinians... for he denied that there is an occupation!!, and said that the Palestinians must jump on the train of peace in the new Middle East.. whose first station was inaugurated by the brave Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates. announcing that there is no alternative for the Palestinians but to close the old files and tales, and to discard the accumulated United Nations resolutions, which stipulate the rights of the Palestinian people., noting that United Nations statistics regarding the number of Palestinian refugees are incorrect, who, according to his statistics, do not exceed a few thousand...!!.. and they must come to the negotiating table if they desire... because the train of peace is moving fast and has no intention of stopping.... and the Palestinians must adopt flexible and brave ideas if they wish to reserve seats for themselves.... in negotiating with the Israelis.....!!

- In this regard, I had followed what this former American envoy said prior to his resignation at the end of October (Tishreen) 2019, in an interview with an Israeli newspaper, when he said that the greatest achievement of the American administration in the Middle East was bringing Israel closer to the Arab world... and that one of his main tasks was encouraging people to think outside the stale ongoing talk for decades about this conflict., .... and to change the discourse about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict!!. where he expressed his denial of the existence of a conflict with an occupation, calling it an territorial dispute.!!.. and added in the cited interview that there is no international consensus on this issue ..and we must therefore reject previous resolutions and international law as incapable of achieving peace .. and that achieving peace from his point of view is recognizing the facts on the ground..!!.. and moving away from old slogans.. and calcified points of dialogue.. and educating people about the conflict .. and changing the discourse about the conflict ...!!

· They can carry out such campaigns, in cooperation with governing systems and Arab individuals.. and they can squeeze by all means the livelihoods in the region... and the peoples will suffer shortages in money, lives and produce.!!... yet they cannot... erase the deep faith in the justice of the Palestinian cause ..and the credibility of the Arab and Islamic narrative of it..... the Palestinians together with the deep Arab and Islamic popular base.... are able to impose their agenda ...no matter how long it takes. only with patience, endurance, wisdom... and genuinely unified ranks with deliberate intent....!!

·       31-8-2020

Share or cite

Citation

Zuhdi Shubeitah, “Creating Pain, Manufacturing Despair” (English translation of «خلق الالم ..... وتصنيع اليأس», originally published 13 September 2022), https://www.zuhdish.co/en/articles/creating-pain-manufacturing-despair

Where this article sits in “Public Affairs & Politics”

All articles (316) →

Article 57 of 316 in this topic of the archive, since 2022.

0%