The Legacy of Solomon
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Slimane’s brother arrived with another man he introduced as Saad; a film producer. O’Connelly had hoped they would bring news of the situation in Gaza, but he was disappointed.
With little else to occupy them during their long wait the conversation turned to politics. Slimane an experienced Palestinian journalist, born on the West Bank in Jericho, had lived in Gaza for many years and had observed the deterioration of living conditions ever since the peak of optimism following the Camp David Agreement. For him there was no doubt as to corruption of Arafat’s and his party the Fatah, but the Palestinians leaders were not alone perfidy.
Ever since the attack on the Twin Towers and the declaration by George Bush of the war against terrorism eyes have been turned on the Muslim world, suspected in block of jihad against the West, and Palestine had been diabolised as a quasi terrorist state for its rightful fight against Israel for the liberation of its occupied and colonised homeland.
Slimane spoke of the consequences of the radicalisation of the West and the Muslim worlds. At the outside the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had been no different to that of a conventional war of territory, with little concern for the underlying growing discord between the two worlds.
For Saad, who was in fact an expatriate Iraqi who lived in Paris, the heart of this discord was the simmering conflict with Israel over Palestinian rights, and the question of oil. Nature has to a great extent put its oil reserves in the Muslim world, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, the Emirates, Indonesia, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and even in Russia part of its vast oil reserves are situated in Muslim republics such as the little know, but rich Bachkiristan.
Resentment had been simmering before the destruction of the World Trade Centre with attacks amongst others in Saudi Arabia, Tanzania and Kenya.
The results today are reflected in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine as well as the position of Iran with the world becoming a more dangerous place. The excuse of terrorism led to the war in Iraq with the accusation of its possessing weapons of mass destruction, though no proof was discovered. It was neither Iraq nor Afghanistan that perpetrated the attacks on the US homeland.
US foreign policy was reoriented to counter-terrorism and homeland security whilst promoting the American concept of freedom, a word that has little meaning to an ordinary Iraqi or Palestinian, who to their way of thinking were already free.
The Western philosophy of democracy with free elections has given Palestine a Hamas government, has caused civil war between the factions that divide Iraq and Afghanistan, has increased the risk of civil war in Lebanon. Democracy has little meaning in societies divided by ethnic and religious lines.
For Saad Western democracy in Iraq was impossible, democracy commenced with education, equal opportunity and above all wealth created by effort, not wealth pumped out of the ground that benefits a few. The so called political reforms in a society of so many facets such as Iraq claimed by Americans in the comfort of their fortress state had no meaning whatsoever. Iraq was in reality a state formed on artificial premises, around Baghdad with its ancient history as the capital of a regional power, with its Sunnite population who could only be pleased to see their power extended by the borders imposed by an imperial power, giving them authority over Kurds, traditional desert tribes and the Shiite region extending down to the Gulf port of Basrah.
When the Bush administration declared war on terrorism with global with the right to intervene militarily in Iraq and Afghanistan and the right arrest anybody anywhere in the world on suspicion of his being linked to terrorism, it gave, by extension, countries such as Israel the freedom to act whenever they feels the need by invoking the threat of terrorism.
Israel's attack on Gaza was based on it confounding the capture of a soldier with terrorism, though its own massive attacks are said to be in self defence, self defence against a few amateurish rockets, deadly for sure, but their effects are dwarfed compared to the number of Palestinians killed.
The result of the world’s only superpower decision to ignore human rights in the supposed defence of their vision of democracy has been the exploitation by unprincipled governments of anti-terrorist laws for the oppression of rightful political opposition and the rejection of rightful demands such as for Palestine and its territories occupied by Israel.
Saad was a film producer, a small film producer. After two modest successes focused on the everyday life in the Iraqi war zone he had arrived in Gaza with the idea of preparing a documentary on everyday life in Palestine and had found himself caught up between the warring factions.
He had already abandoned the hope of continuing work in Iraq because of the sectarian violence and now found himself caught up between the Hamas, Fatah and Israelis. He told them of how Sunni families in mainly Shia neighbourhoods were driven out of their homes in the by endless sectarian violence and intimidation.
Baghdad had become a trap from Adhamiya in the north, through the huge overflowing Shia slum of Sadr City, to Zafaraniya in the south, as ethnic cleansing swept through its communities with murder and assassination around the clock with Shia death squads abducting and murdering Sunnis, Sunnis reeking death with their murderous car bombs.
The al-Mahdi militia had infiltrated the police, controlled service stations for petrol and propane cooking gas, extorted money from shops and businesses to finance its war.
Saad likened Gaza to Baghdad and the Hamas to al-Mahdi with the enclave being transformed it into a political-religious power base.
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Stranded