16th Day: Where did our revolution go wrong?

In a previous post, I argued that Palestine never had a revolution. 

Today I was on my way back from Bethlehem to Ramallah. The radio station the driver was blasting was not a typical pop music station that appeals to young thuggish-styled drivers, nor a Quran station that the more-religious drivers force everyone to listen to. This driver has tuned into a station that played patriotic music. It is now official, the September 20th has really become a patriotic movement amongst little informed Palestinians/ the majority. 

One song in particular which caught my attention was the sweet Wallah Lazra'ak Biddar which is a love song dedicated for a Palestine that was "farmed and made green" for generations by our ancestors. The song declares "From al-Jarmaq (Mount Meron) a Safadi (a person from the ethnically cleansed town of Safad) sings 'Gaza and al-Bireh are home."

History wouldn't have it any other way as Abu Mazen, a Safadi, has declared Gaza and al-Bireh (Where the PA headquarters are located) his only home, not Safad which he now recognizes as part of Israel. 

As I recall the PLO so-called revolution, I wonder how well-forged our history has been. Sometimes it feels as if Palestine's history has been a big conspiracy, a hoax, or merely perfect series of mistakes that go so harmoniously forever towards our demise. Where did we go wrong? Or should I ask: how good have we performed our mistakes to bring us to this state? 

From early on in our modern history we have been committing mistakes, one after the other, as if our leadership cannot perform anything right, but instead has become a perfect sinner. 

I do not like to think of our history as a hoax, but really, has this all been one big hoax? How come the PA is so perfect at riding the waves of revolution and gain all the support when they are completely against it? Why do we as Palestinians support mistakes? Why do we never question our leadership without escaping oppression? Why am I not out on the streets now demanding that not only Gaza and Ramallah, but Safad and Haifa belong to me equally, because history said so, not because the PLO decided it was not anymore. 

After two weeks, I will be called a traitor for not loving the bomb. Until then, please enjoy the very sweet Wallah lazra3ak biddar. 

26th Day: Grey Deserts

A Grey Desert Called Libya

How did Saif al-Eslam al-Gadhafi escape the Libyan Rebel's custody?

How did Mohammad al-Gadhafi escape on the same day?

Libya Uprising: The Best Photos- LIFE

Shots were heard on live television as Mohammad was talking to Aljazeera, "In my house!" he answered the TV anchor who asked where was the shooting noises coming from. "In my house!" he repeated at least five or six times sounding very nervous. The call was cut short. Shortly the news were out: He was said to have escaped his home arrest with Gadhafi forces.

I felt a slight sympathy to him, perhaps as he was making his last prayers, "lā ʾilāha ʾillallāh, Muḥammad rasūlu-llāh" (There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God). But I could not feel any sort of remorse to the man who owns the Libyan General Posts and Telecommunications Company, the company responsible for blacking out Libya for months, cutting phone calls and internet to suppressing the truth away from any possible international support of the Libyan revolution and not allow the free flow of information from Libya to reach past Bab al-Azizia.

Saif al-Eslam was a whole different deal. If he was my neighbor, we'd be on eternal bad terms. I never quite felt gloat over anyone more so than I did on the day the obnoxious, spoiled-brat was said to have been arrested. The invalid jerk who sounded equally delusional as his father made all sorts of insulting comments about the revolution and was equally responsible for heinous war-crimes committed against the Libyan people. His appearance showed the same repugnant arrogant kid challenging the revolution, as if the Capital he was speaking from has not arose against his family's tyranny. When asked about his alleged ICC trial his answer was "TOZ!" an Arabic slang losely translates as "To Hell with!"

Their was a shared sense of betrayal. As I followed the tweets, some where already losing faith in the Libyan NTC and ICC.

I felt enraged, and my heart was slightly being eaten out as Saif al-Eslam was confidently and provocatively walking among the reporters claiming NTC was lying. Guessing how both sons of Gadhafi were captured then freed I allowed myself to believe the Libyan pre-revolution rumors about Gadhafi working directly with the devil! It took the rebels another 20 hours to capture Bab al-Azizia, Gadhafi's last remaining stronghold in Tripoli. Footage showed the rebels climbing the statue of the Airplane and Iron-fist (picture in yesterday's post) located inside the compound in an effort to bring it down. So, knowing that the Gadhafi family were wandering around aimlessly was enough revenge for me for today's little disappointment. (Following the tweets of CNN journalist Matthew Chance, it seems like the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli where Saif al-Eslam appeared was still under the Gadhafi forces.)

As Libya was nearing it's inevitable route to freedom, the Syrian dictatorship was still living in its imaginary world. Up until today, the Syrian media were in full denial about Tripoli's capture by the revolutionaries. The state-run media focused on the footage of a free Saif al-Eslam [I am assuming] in an effort to prove to their Syrian audience that Western Media and the much despised-by-Arab-dictatorships Aljazeera and even Alarabya Satellite televisions were spreading lies, in an effort by the government to further harness the public outrage over the numerous atrocities that were being committed against the Syrian people.

Around 3:00 AM this morning Aljazeera showed a mobile-phone clip of an army officer, said to have split away from the army, being tortured by his former superiors who were forcing him to "swear" by Bashar and Maher al-Assad in blasphemy. The words he was being forced to utter in "worship of" Bashar and Maher will certainly have an equal response as that of the footage of mosque towers in Lattakia and Hama being bombed by the Syrian army. These footage are spreading outrage and convincing more Syrians to fight their government which they now see as not only anti-human, but also as Kuffar or blasphemous.

Today started with a disappointment but ended with utter content. Libya has now sealed the coffin on over four decades of brutal dictatorship and will start building itself from scratch. A good post on twitter to describe the situation came from a jubilant @Jonny_Hallam who wrote: "A front line Dr in #Benghazi just told me: 'we've done the easypart, now here comes the hard part... starting a country from Zero.'"

Gaza's Foreign Retainers

Riot Police dispersing pro-Kurdish Demonstration- Haaretz

Today witnessed a new heart-break which I will not go into it's details as it requires further brainstorming. It was the Turkish attack on the Kurds in Northern Iraq. The act could not have come at a worst timing costing the lives of at least 100 Kurds (armed or otherwise), and only days after Turkey's official criticism of Israel's attack on Gaza. This assault will most likely expose the double standards of the Turkish government to the Palestinians as it will strengthen Israel's public position equating Israeli actions to those of Turkey, and the Gazans to the Kurdish population when it responds to Turkey's allegations. Palestinians so far look highly up to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; however, finding common ground between Turkey and Israel will most likely jeopardize Turkey's position and the trust it has gained so far in the region.

Israeli war cabinet has voted against expanding the deadly attacks on Gaza into a full-fledged war. Some media guessed that Israel took this stance to stop the assault as a precautionary step which will evade Israel from an international isolation. Equally, other media assumed that it happened out of lack of international support for such an assault which was only supported by an Israeli version of the story that simply did not add up together.

However, Israel never needed international legitimacy to attack Gaza or elsewhere. Infact, Israel has always simply ignored international discontent and supported its own unlawful decision by playing the "security" cards claiming a war was a "precautionary necessity".  Perhaps the most convincing argument as to why did Israel decide to pull back came today from an article written by Ali Abunimah, a Palestinian writer and blogger who co-founded the website Electronic Intifada. The article argues that Egyptian demonstrating in front of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo demanding an end to the Egypt-Israel peace treaty were the strongest element which helped in stopping a major bloodshed. Abunimeh wrote that the "people's power" put a stop to the assault thus saving more Palestinian lives. He wrote: "...it is governments being forced to respond to people power – especially in Egypt, where tens of thousands of people rallied outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo, in protest at Israel’s killing of five Egyptian military personnel during the Eilat operation, and Israel’s attacks on Palestinians." He argued that "not only actual protests, but even the mere threat of mass, nonviolent, popular protest can constrain Israeli occupiers".

It was relieving to know that Gaza was mostly quite after Israel's war cabinet decided to pull back from a major escalation. To that, I say thank you to the tens of thousands of proud and strong Egyptians who demanded a stop to Israel's aggression. Also, to the Libyan people (population number similar to that of the Palestinians) whose regained independence would be a new incentive for Palestinians to realize that they don't have to pick the lesser of the worst possible options, and to know they can have it their way through diplomacy and armed resistance at the same time.

27th Day: Libya Overcomes

Benghazi was the first liberated city in Libya and the
"cradle of revolt against" Gaddafi - [Malaysian Insider]

The Libyan Revolution won on the first hour of this day in an unanticipated advance that sent shocks across the World. 

Again, I was unable to go to sleep before I was sure the news were completely true and before I examined the euphoric chants of tens of thousands of residents of Benghazi (freed during the first phases of the revolution). Those were enough proof that the revolution has overcome months of fighting. Young Tripolitanian men stomped the portraits of the colonel, firing guns in the air in celebration, and news about residents welcoming the revolutionaries with open arms were spreading across the news. I am still amazed by how fast things have unfolded in the past 24 hours.

The revolution had officially started on February 17th (Twitter's Hashtag #Feb17) after Libyans called for marches against nearly 42 years of brutal dictatorship under Col. Muammar Gaddafi. During the first days of the revolution, Television stations brought clips of demonstrations literary growing as they marched on high-ways across Libya. 

Some said that a joke that dispersed quickly from Tunisia to Egypt had stirred the uprising. The joke goes as follow: "Tunisians, having won the revolution and got rid of their own tyrant, ask Libyans [whose country is situated half way between them and Egypt] to stoop a little so they can see the real men of Egypt". The joke quickly dispersed across the region, touching on the traditional and historic machismo of Libyan men. The joke may have brought few laughs here and there but it certainly was an insult to the man-hood of Libyan men who quickly wanted their leader out. 

Gaddafi Airplane and Iron-Fist Sculpture, symbol used
to crush US planes and the Libyan opposition- from [Wikipedia]

Certainly, the joke could not have toppled a regime, but people went out on the streets two days before the proposed date for the revolution in an act of rebellion on February 15th inspired by two successful revolutions in their Arab neighboring countries and in defiance of Gaddafi who was claiming that Libya cannot be as "stupid' as it's neighboring nations. Gaddafi who had praised Tunisia's Ben Ali after he was ousted and claimed Egyptian revolutionaries were hired US Agents with Agendas, was already way too overdue in the eyes of young Libyans who now wanted to be part of a changing region. Gaddafi first claimed that the uprising in Libya was being run by mislead kids who brought some of what remained of the alleged agendas from Tahrir Square (suggesting the agendas were actual documents!).  

The further the revolution ignited the more Gaddafi was finding creative terms to brand the revolutionaries. During his infamous cuckoo speech at his compound which was left in ruins for 25 years after it was bombed during a US assault on Tripoli in 1986, Gaddafi called the rebels "rats" "roaches" "stray dogs", and claimed they were victims to "hallucination pills" and other drugs, urging their parents to "take them inside their homes" before they would cause further damage. 

But the revolution continued, and soon, it was no longer being referred to as a revolution on various televisions and other media sources as terms describing the situation shifted from "civil unrest" to "civil war". Soon, I lost track of what was happening there since the news were similar everyday and I feared Libya will be divided into two countries: The Eastern Libya with Benghazi as it's capital city (historically known as Cyrenaica) and Western Libya with Tripoli as it's capital city (historically known as Tripolitania). 

The NATO intervension was making the picture even bleaker. With the little trust I and so many numerous Arabs had of it (regardless of the , it was hard to continue openly support all of the decisions taken by the revolution. Nonetheless, I could not disapprove of bringing in the NATO decision, as I was certainly not the one living under a maniac and an oppressive dictatorship. My discontent was the decisions taken by the NATO alliance especially with the war taking way longer than having anticipated which I feared will be paid for heavily by Libyans after the revolution.

Today, I felt quite jealous of Libyans. I do admit it, but I felt ecstatically proud as well. The Libyans have taken the route of diplomacy as well as armed resistance in order to achieve their goal towards freedom. Whereas we, the Palestinians, were still discussing the feasability of calling in the NATO forces, affirming our embracement of sterile Arabist nationalist polimics, and the futile support of losing non-armed martyrs with absolutely zero-gains and losses on all ends.

Today, so many Libyans expressed their joy via twitter. Some of the most disheartening tweets came from @ShababLibya (LibyanYouthMovement) who recalled his uncle “Sadig Al Shwehdi, one of the most famous victims of Gaddafii's crimes hanged on live TV in the 80s”. To recall every single crime committed by Gaddafi is a taint in the face of humanity, one that stood in silence watching decades of brutality go unaccountable for. 

Most Palestinians I know were happy that today marked the day Libya’s Gaddafi was gone. Many Palestinians recall Gaddafi with utmost abhorrence: On the one hand he was the one who kicked Palestinians out to the borders of Libya ordering them to go back home to liberate Palestine if they so wished to. His insults towards the Palestinians were not over even only last week as Gaddafi branded fleeing Tripolitanians and other Libyans as “Palestinians and Somali’s”, in an attempt to stigmatize these nations, and degrade Libyans taking refuge far from fighting. On the other end, few Arabs and Palestinians were quick to judge the revolution based on its decision to allow NATO forces. Via twitter, one of the most expressive tweets regarding the situation came from @Cyrenaican, a Libyan who wrote in admonition: “How dare you let NATO intervention trump ur sympathy or support for the Libyan ppl, who fought vs this brutal regime w/ everything they had […] We fought and died, with incredible bravery, sacrifice. How can you not be happy for us? Why should we not celebrate?” 

I felt an urge to respond to him, to tell him that we supported him and all other Libyans who were hungry for liberation and freedom. Palestinians have made numerous mistakes when it came to our POV regarding other’s decisions when it concerned freedom and liberation: We made the mistake in Iraq, in Kuwait, even in PLO’s official stance on Western Sahara which angered those who assumed they could find in a Palestinian supporter further reason for an international sympathy. The mistake could not have repeated itself in Libya. Why should we exemplify revolutionaries yet dare make so many numerous mistakes when it comes to the freedom and independence others seek? 

I showed my support of Libya from the beginning, and I still do. I know Cyrenaicans now know the true taste of freedom, and so are all Libyans who fought tirelessly until this day. 

On the 27th day prior to an alleged Palestinian Authority “Statehood”, I am not confident the PA has stood on the right side of the equation. Once again, we are frowned upon by those seeking freedom. The Palestinian Authority is too cautious to take strong sides, and to assert itself as a decisive decision maker in the region. What seems to matter to the PA is to keep a neutral stance as to keep the room open had things shifted in the future. The PA, once again, proves to be playing an endless political game in order to secure the most gains, even when it came to a revolution already won.

PS: By the time this article was written, Col. Muammar Gaddafi's whereabouts were unknown. Two of his sons were arrested and one of them already escaped with the help of some of the remaining Gaddafi forces.

28th Day: #FLAGMAN and the Resurrection of Karama

 Around 3:00 AM, again on Twitter, there was a mysterious new Hashtag: #FLAGMAN.

the AMAZING FLAGMAN- by Carlos Latuff

For those of you unfamiliar with Twitter, hashtags are "keywords" one inserts within the available 140 characters allowed to express oneself. They are preceded by the pound (#) sign. Twitter explains that this is an easy way to find similar posts (tweets) to follow, or posts of common interest. It is pretty addictive actually. I think I personally had started few Hashtags that never "trended" on twitter.

It did not take me a long time to find out that FLAGMAN was a mysterious Egyptian guy who climbed, ropeless, 14 stories yielding to the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, to replace the Israeli Flag with an Egyptian one.

The guy became an instant hero.

I was following the tweets of his arrest as he climbed down then his immediate release upon the demands of thousands of cheering demonstrators. The guy became a national hero within seconds.

His Hashtag trended on twitter becoming the top tweet within minutes. In less than half an hour, a new Facebook Page was created for him dedicated to an Anonymous Hero who "climbed and took down the Flag" referring to the Israeli flag which was soon in ashes. Within seconds of it's creation, it already boasted 1000 members (please click on the highlighted link to see the current count).

First tweets about his identity came from strangers claiming his name was Mustafa Kamel, which coincided with the name of an Egyptian nationalist from the late 19th century. I joked about the name of #FLAGMAN claiming his mother had planned for this coincidence to happen from the day he was born.

But soon the real name was out. Not as impressive as the first it was Ahmad as-Shahat BUT it was a perfectly Egyptian-sounding name: The Egyptian "Average Joe". It was baffling to watch the video later on during the day, to see what the thousands upon thousands of chants were all about. The best tweet, retweeted by someone I follow on twitter came from @LadyBlueeeeeee who wrote "Egyptian Beans give you wings!" in Arabic. Egyptians were proud, and made everyone else proud. They certainly boasted my ego as a Palestinian.

It was clear that Egyptian do not want Israel on their soil. The Camp David peace treaty with Israel is worthless to them, and one Egyptian with wings can take down the lie about peace that was forcibly shoved down their throats for decades.

Egyptians are clearly some of the most stubborn, yet good-humoured people I am coming to find out about. Within an hour of the incident a new online game with a theme song was created for #FLAGMAN and the infamous caricature artist Carlos Latuff created an iconic picture of #FLAGMAN depicting a Spiderman-like character holding a burning Israeli flag.

The peace treaty with Israel, I come to learn, is part of the past that Egyptians now want to be completely done with. Their former dictator Hosni Mubarak has suffocated their freedoms in the name of Israeli safety and an alleged national security that they never felt. It was a big lie, everyone knew it, and now they don't want to live it anymore.

#FLAGMAN ignited a new hope for Egyptians who after months of ecstatically celebrating their winning revolution were yet to truly experience a complete change, and were tired of feeling Israel was placed before their own interests as Egypt's priority. "The People Want" was not just a slogan they perpetually repeated for 18 bloody days, they want their demands to be met. Israel's safety is not on their list of priorities. They toppled an entire system, a dictator who ruled them with corruption and an iron fist, and secret agents that counted their every breath. It was not hard for them to at least decide who stays and who leaves Egypt after they have won, to decide who they consider a friend and who they do not welcome. Very simple yet profound logic.

With the Israeli flag down and people calling against the acts of normalization with Israel, I anticipate that the Egyptian-Israeli relationship will no longer stay the way they used to be under Mubarak. The Egyptian people want, and their wants are not to be ostracized by their own people in favor of what they consider enemies/ outsiders, and their natural resources given away practically for free to a foreign obnoxious and unwelcomed power.

Egyptians demonstrating in front of the Israeli Embassy
in Cario- used with permission from Ghazala Irshad

#FLAGMAN gave back to the Arab World a feeling they almost thought they lost. al-Karama. Karama is a word that should enter the Merriam Webster dictionary with a simple explanation: Origin: Arabic First use in English: 2011. It should explain how the sense of pride, the demand for respect, dignity and self-worth, were combined together on that day. Arabs felt they regained their own Karama. Israel, they know, was part of the oppression they experienced through their dictators and tyrants. The feeling of regaining one's Karama is the same one felt when Tunisia was Free from it's Dictator, when Mubarak was overthrown by the people, and when the next dictator is stomped over by people long-suffering people who deserved much better all along.

#FLAGMAN will be a decisive day in the Arab History, which will directly affect the Palestinian history. Egyptians will now play their strategic role but with Karama and not merely answer to a higher authority, represented by the US and other foreign powers, and certainly not by Israel.

The Palestinian Authority, long passively submitting to all foreign powers against the people's wants, will soon have to look for alternative ways to appease a very likely public outcry and discontent. The PA is not different than the rest of the Arab Dictators, except with the privilage (and curse) of ruling under an occupying foreign power, and allowing for a bantustanized situation to formulate in Palestine (Israel). The PA now is fully aware that it has lost it's back-up support after Mubarak. They cannot wait for September 20th to arrive to see what they will do next.

During the Tahrir Square celebrations following the overthrowing of the Mubarak regime, there was seen a young man standing above a thin and high street-light pole, he was relaxed and waving an Egyptian flag as if he was standing on the most solid ground. It took us months to find out his identity. It was the same #FLAGMAN, and with him comes a new hope for all of us fearing a complete fracture in our already stained history of surrender and bad-leadership. We know that if we give up, our closest neighbour to the West [the Egyptian people] won't allow it. They're already challenging Israel's bid on building a wall separating Israel's Negev from Sinai Desert saying: "you can build all the walls in the world, we have 80 million flagmen."

And I say, "climb it, like an Egyptian".

29th Day: Gaza Fires Back (& SCAF Lied?)

More people died today. 

Nothing came as a surprise to me as I witnessed the Show-de-Force everyone was suddenly too eager to boast. 

Israel continued its airstrikes on Khan Younis in the “wee small hours of the morning”, right after Suhour. I got my updates instantly from Twitter: the unfortunate tragic irony of being excited about knowing you're the first to know about the strikes from twitter followers and followees, yet knowing they are right in the center of not only a dangerous zone but a potentially fatal situation. I recalled the horrors of air-strikes ten years ago, they don’t have to be F-16s to terrorize you to the bones. Just knowing you could be mistaken for the next target or knowing your refuge is in fact the actual target. It is not so much about death as it is about surviving then living with a permanent disability: lost arms, limbs, sights, or any sort of dis-figuration. 

Graphic pictures today surfaced from yesterday’s deadly attacks on Gaza Strip: Men who have been blown up to pieces, weeping women, a child completely disfigured, burnt and his viscera exposed. I knew I saw too much, but surprisingly like most fellow-Palestinians I have grown too used to seeing blood (or bodies cremated by missiles and fire). 

Today Gaza fired back. I must assert that Gaza was plunged into this for few apparent reasons. Located relatively far away from the site where an attack took place near the Israeli Red Sea resort town of Eilat (the ethnically-cleansed Bedouin Palestinian village of Imm-ar-Rashrash), completely besieged by Israel and Egypt, and not having a single faction adopting this highly-moderated attack: Gaza was the first to take the blame and the people living there were anticipating a fast response from Israel. 

On the far-right of the Palestinian political spectrum: Today Hamas abandoned the seize fire and vowed not to stop firing its rockets on Israel until Israel stops its raids. Some of Hamas’ rockets reached the Israeli town of Be’er Shiva (formerly the ethnically cleansed Palestinian desert city of Beer as-Sabe’, literary: the Lion’s Well), killing two Israelis and injuring others. 

On the middle-right: Fatah claims Israel is turning the region into turmoil to delay their “heroic” attempt to declaring a “statehood” in September. Ironically, but not surprisingly, a Fatah-spokes man vowed to defend Gaza in every way possible. ‘nought said. 

And on the hippie-socialist left-side-that-bows-to-dictators: The PFLP (having lost all credibility, supporters, and position since the late 1980s) was back on stage firing few rockets into Israel, but not getting much applauds. 

The news were not all sarcastic today though.

Egyptians demonstrated in the thousands in Cairo, Alexandria, and else-where in front of the Israeli embassy and consulate offices since last night. At 3:00 AM, there were hundreds of angry men chanting and waving Palestinian flags, demanding a firm response from the Egyptian government following Israel’s attacks on Sinai- Egypt, which killed three Egyptian soldiers and injured others. The chants also called for an end to the peace treaty with Israel, and the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador from Egypt. By the early hours of the morning, when thousands stormed the streets across the Israeli embassy, SCAF issued two statements announcing bringing home the Egyptian ambassador until Israel officially apologizes. Until now, SCAF has not delivered it’s promises, and Egyptians are only growing further resentment towards them. 

So why am I bringing Egypt into this? 

A new generation of Egyptians who want it their way- [Reuters]

The simple answer is that Egypt is Gaza’s only Arab neighbor, Gazans have strong ties with/ and feelings toward the country that ruled the Strip prior to the 1967 War. Also, because for decades under various dictatorships, Egypt has been the mediator and anchor to [the Western influence and] America’s policies in the region. Egypt has been the substrate that balanced the region through war and peace, and the change that took place there is yet to show some decisive consequences with an orphaned Palestinian Authority following the fall of Mubarak, and a new generation of Egyptians who want over with the old ways of not having things their way. 

Today was certainly not just another day, the 29th day before the supposed “statehood” saw further blood and modern artillery. Palestinians still sit and look for clues. Ramallah is definitely the worst place to be at the moment if one wants solid clues. Today's funniest tweet came from @LinahAlsaafin who tweeted "#Abbashole asked Arab league whether armed resistance would be ok if UN fake statehood didn't work out. Can someone poison him already?" I just had to respond with a line from Chicago: "some guys just can't hold their arsenic!"

I guess for now, I’ll stick to twitter updates.

Pre-State Statement: On the 30th Day Towards "Statehood", Gaza bleeds

... Saeb Erekat has spoken, and the nation rejoiced! For he has finally come out on the first pages of all Palestinian Authority-controlled media on August 18th warning the Zionist entity with a firm [verbal] response if they chose to attack Gaza, calling it an irresponsible action, following a deadly attack on a bus in the South of Israel. 

Affirming how the leaks were "slander", not expressive
enough of [a worst] reality.- [The guardian]

"Israel is the occupying power.” Declared Mr. Erekat, “Under international humanitarian law, it is responsible for the welfare and safety of the Palestinian population living under its occupation,". 

The former chief negotiator in the name of the Palestinians has supposedly stepped down back in January after Aljazeera news channel made public what came to be known as the Palestine Papers which exposed him as a lying sack of shit [of candies] in the way he has literary lived his life to negotiate (confirming the title for his Semi-Autobiography in Arabic “Life is Negotiations”), and after having under-gone a face-blushingly embarrassing near-death experience on live-television on Aljazeera where he foolishly agreed to appear to defend his back-door deals with Israel and the years he bamboozled the Palestinian people into an endless cycle of negotiations that they paid for with their own blood and economic well-fare. 

The former chief negotiator was back, now in full-fledged obnoxiousness, complete with the Palestinian Kaffiyeh and the infamous threatening finger that decorates the iconic portraits of all un-voted for traitors who happened to lead all Third World Countries [and semi-countries] around the World. 

Erekat the Savior, as portrayed on Palestinian Maan-News
complete with a Kaffiyeh and a Finger. The Halo on top of
his head partially visible - [Maan News Agency]

But I must admit that for months all Palestinian-controlled media had given small doses of Erekat to the public, typically a small unnoticed news excerpt where he just had to appear wearing his Kaffiyeh and making that same finger gesture of strength and dominance for months until the meat was ripe and he was ready to be served on a plate of empty promises. 

The funniest tweet I read on that day came from someone I cannot recall (darn it), but it went something like this: “Erekat is warning Israel against any irresponsible Action in Gaza, or else… he’ll go back to negotiations” (please tweet-mate, if you ever read this provide me with the right tweet!)

Erekat was back, the hero of the Palestine Papers, the same papers that exposed how the PA probably knew about the war on Gaza back in 2009, that same war which resulted with over 1500 deaths amongst civilians and few armed men, yet did nothing to stop it and continued to negotiate their way before and after, because that is what the Palestinian Authority does best: forever negotiating.

Erekat was back when now Israel was making it no secret that it intended to retaliate (collectively punish) the entire Gaza Strip for an attack that was not adopted by any Palestinian faction, much less to be specifically linked to Gaza. 

Was that Erekat's way to apologize to the Strip after having stood in negotiative silence when a war was being planned against it? I ain’t no Conspiracy Theorist, but with only 30 days left until September 20th, I am not sure Israel wanted to lose its favorite chief-negotiator of all time. The one who has given the longest time any Palestinian would have for Israel to expand settlements, practically annex 60 percent of what remained of the West Bank, and the one whose best interest lies in an Israeli-controlled Rafah border in Gaza. 

Israel attacked Gaza again earlier this morning, I followed the tweets of, mostly, cynical Palestinians from Gaza who have grown way too accustomed to living under daily attacks of Israel and F-16 noises breaking the sound barrier. By 5:00 AM, there were six confirmed deaths and over 23 injuries. By the end of the day, there were 15 deaths and over 40 injuries. Once again, praise shall be to the political corruption of men who know they cannot save lives nor stop the blood rollercoaster, yet are in need of making strong statements that help repair their shattered reputation and gain their former spot as… chief negotiators.

With only 30 days left towards "Statehood", Gaza bleeds. 

In order to spare myself the headache of having to explain the September 20th bid (or the so-called September Entitlement) on a bantustanized and much debated PA statehood, please visit Aljazeera for further details:

(or just use your collective-memory and imagination):

Abbas: Palestine to go to UN in September - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

Abbas, too ready to run a "State"?- [Reuters]