Countries in turmoil: From Palestine to Iraq and everything in between

Arab countries are on the brink of major changes stemming from a map distorted by numerous conflicts that threaten both large and small states

The Arab map and its collection of traditional balances are currently poised for major changes. Our Arab countries are the target of successive assaults by their enemies overseas, forces of evil and impedance, and domestic terrorism that is complicit or compatible with foreign agendas. Large areas and major states are the targets of these attacks. Whether the enemy is abroad in the blatant form of colonialism - as is the case of Palestine - or domestic or a blend - as is the case in Iraq and Syria in the East, Egypt and Sudan in the centre or Libya and other Maghreb states in the West of the Arab world - the threat facing Arab countries is the same.
Despite what Arab countries endure and attempts by some Arab people to revolt and rebuild political systems based on democracy, development, social justice and equality, the obsession of dominating these revolutions by some fanatic religious factions has resulted in internal turmoil and distortion of their path; transforming some of them into civil wars. Domestic counterrevolutions and their media - which is heavily funded by corrupt and illegitimate political money - play a major role in lawlessness and diminishing mass confidence in revolution as a concept and the actual condition where they occurred.
The counterrevolution by major colonial countries to undermine Arab revolutions and stifle their liberation tendencies also sabotaged these revolutions. Interference using cursed foreign money to divide the structure of revolutions undertaken by political groups that share the sole common denominator of a desire to overthrow old regimes. They have no joint political, economic and social programme that would serve as the foundation of building new systems based on national consensus on a joint programme. This led to circumstance and political choices at ballot boxes in the end.
Under such circumstances, differences over the very basics has become the prevalent feature of political forces that participated in revolutions. This condition is easily manipulated by counterrevolutionary elements to demonise and sabotage revolutions, which in fact happened in many Arab countries.
In Egypt, the terrorism war - which is rabidly supported by the International Organisation of the Muslim Brotherhood and its financiers - has collided with the valour of a great people and the abilities of state agencies to confront these security threats. But that is not the case in other regional countries. Perhaps the wound of Palestine is the greatest hemorrhage and pain, and an embodiment of the Nazi logic that controls the Zionist entity in dealing with the Palestinian people and their rights. And so, we will begin here.
A new Zionist crime against Palestine and all of humanity
In the heart of the Arab nation, the brutal Zionist aggression against Palestine continues, forcing Palestinians to once again sacrifice more than 1,000 martyrs and thousands injured, while the world shamelessly stands silent. It is not a matter of a sectarian extremist religious-political movement called Hamas and its sisters, but rather the Palestinian people themselves who - with legendary courage - are bearing the brunt of criminal Zionist attacks against them on their land which has been occupied since 1967.
First, these people have an absolute right to use all forms of resistance to seize their freedom and independence of their land and establish an independent state. This struggle and the rights on which it is based are basics for anyone with a humane conscience. Even the UN Charter and established rules of international law and relations dictate the right of nations and people to self-determination. This right has so far been withheld from the heroic people of Palestine.
Zionist militias seized the land of this people as part of a foul colonial plot by the West in the first half of the 19th Century, which culminated in the war of usurpation in 1948. Zionist lies about Palestinians selling their land did little to justify the theft of Palestine. Even Zionist documents show that all Palestinian agricultural land taken by Zionists, either through sale or donation, by the authority of the British mandate which conspired with them, is no more than 1.6 dunams or 11.4 percent of Palestinian agricultural land and no more than six percent of all of Palestine. The rest of Palestine was seized, whether agricultural or other desert and non-desert land, in the 1948 war of usurpation.
In Egypt in 1917, foreigners owned 13 percent of agricultural land through reservation and purchase, according to an Ottoman decree issued in 1876 allowing foreigners, including Jews and Europeans, to own land in countries under Ottoman rule. This included Egypt and Palestine. The Zionist entity, planted like a dagger in the Arab body, completed its theft of the land of Palestine through occupation during a treacherous criminal aggression in 1967.
Despite immense historical compromises by Arab countries and Palestinian leaders by accepting the existence of the Zionist entity, as a state within pre-June 1967 borders for some or according to a resolution dividing Palestine for others, this entity has carried out the longest instance of international evasion to end the conflict with the Arabs, and at their heart the Palestinian people. Whenever talks reach the actual point of admission of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip according to the pre-1967 aggression, the process founded on US and Israeli conditions and frameworks, is sabotaged.
This is done through the disintegration of the ruling coalition in Tel Aviv, followed by new elections and restarting talks from square one with the new ruling coalition. Or through dividing Palestinian ranks and making the Palestinian side appear unable to reach consensus on the formula for negotiations within the Zionist entity. Or by escalating confrontations with the Palestinian people through direct Zionist action or manipulating some Palestinian forces to play this role, as part of their position to fight for the liberation of their usurped homeland, or whenever Israel requires it -since Israel has infiltrated many of these forces and organisations.
Even the solution based on accepting one state from the sea to the river to include all Palestinian land in a democratic state for all citizens on an equal footing, the Zionist state rejects this idea out of fear the majority Arab population of a whole Palestine would control the state from the very first moment.
The culture of racist Zionist terrorist militias which this entity created through terrorism does not accept the concept of democracy and equality with another. The Zionist entity is currently proposing a notion of severe racism and banditry by demanding an admission of the Jewish nature of the state. This utterly thieving concept is the foundation that the Zionist entity wants to establish as the next strategy to displace Palestinians outside their land occupied in 1967 and usurped in 1948. The scenario, which destroys the Palestinian cause, was assisted by the regime of the deposed president of Egypt who opened up Sinai to Palestinians. This was not genuine support for the Palestinian cause, but a means of facilitating the criminal Zionist plot to Judify the state and justify the expulsion of the Palestinian people form occupied lands to a neighbouring Arab states.
In reality, any observer of conditions in Palestine will realise that Hamas and her sisters intentionally ignited confrontations with the Zionist entity to recover their dwindling popularity since the overthrow of their Muslim Brotherhood peers in Egypt, and the subsequent closure of secret tunnels. These tunnels violated the sovereignty of the Egyptian state and were an illegal source of wealth to kingpin smugglers and others who traded in the Palestinian cause. This does not deny the right of the Palestinian people to use all means of resistance, at any time, to liberate their usurped homeland and keep their cause alive in the hearts of new Palestinian generations and the conscience of the world.
The novelFreedom and Deathby famous Greek novelist Nikos Kazantzakis tells the story of the Greek revolution against Ottoman occupation. Before the eruption, all signs indicated the Greek island of Crete would be defeated by the forces and organisation of the Turks. However, the heroes who carried out the revolution wanted to keep the cause of their people, their independence and freedom alive in the conscience of future generations even if the price is their lives were sacrificed on the altar of freedom. Their cause remained alive thanks to their sacrifices, and a new generations continued the struggle until Greece was victorious and finally ended Ottoman settlement occupation. The world viewed this novel as insightful world literature and viewed the struggle of the Greeks as a great heroic act.
Accordingly, all that keeps the cause of occupied Palestine alive in the conscience of the people and the world, until it is settled on the basis of truth and justice, deserves the same appreciation granted the heroes ofFreedom and Death.
Iraq: The American crime perpetuated by the demons of sectarianism
In the East of the Arab world, Iraq - a main pillar of this nation - is in a critical historic dilemma. This large Arab country is dominated by despicable ethnic sectarian rule rooted in the US's criminal colonial occupation since 2003. In combatting this occupation, there are rebels who adopt even more radical sectarianism supported by some Arab countries - as if they were taking revenge on Iraq and its people as part of a broader revenge on Arab countries that were once ruled by patriotic and nationalistic Arab regimes.
A Kurdish segment is trying to break away from a united Iraq with the largest possible geographic prize by taking control of the Kurdish province along with Kirkuk, a governorate with a majority Arab population, or nationalising its large oil wealth - even if taking control comes at the expense of the majority Arab and Turkmen there and opens the gates of hell for prolonged ethnic conflict.
The tragedy of Iraq lies in strong intense craving, especially by the US, for its great oil wealth which is the third largest in the world. Recent figures show Iraq's wealth at 143.1 billion barrels or 11.6 per cent of world oil reserves. According to the current rate of oil extraction in Iraq at 2.7 million barrels a day, the lifespan of Iraqi oil reserves is nearly 145 years - the longest worldwide. The lifespan of oil reserves in Saudi Arabia is 78 years, and the world's is 48 years. Many studies indicate that Iraq's potential oil reserves could put it at the top, ahead of Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Even worse, foolish US calculations behind the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 in the end resulted in throwing Iraq into the arms of Iran and its sectarian affiliates. Sectarian rule has generated a more backward, violent and abject counter-sectarianism.
Old geo-strategic balances were destroyed to allow Western companies to hemorrhage Iraq's oil wealth from the central government or the states, whose creation they support, starting with Kurdish state. Political alliances based on sectarian foundations are unable to find an end to Iraq's current quandary, especially in light of the saboteur role of some Arab and neighbouring states in fueling the destructive sectarian struggle in Iraq.
There is no exit for Iraq except through nationalist groups that transcend all existing sectarian, tribal and ethnic political organisations. Iraq needs these groups to be headed by leaders who are known for their nationalism and holding Iraq's interests above all else. Such Iraqi forces are certain to have the effective support of international and regional powers keen on Iraq's unity, integrity and stability. These include Egypt, China, Russia and some major European countries. This support would assist any attempt of this kind, and these powers could even sponsor a conference to save Iraq and try to form this nationalist front to save the great Iraq from the demons of sectarianism, civil war and division.
Syria evades the fate of Libya despite tribal vendetta and revenge of the West
In Syria, the people began to demand freedom and democracy but the response of security forces was so violent and foolish, that at the beginning the regime even promised to hold accountable those who used violence in confronting the first popular protests in Deraa. However, the situation escalated quickly because of regional and international intervention to manipulate the first spontaneous spark to sabotage Syria and destroy its unity and statehood.
Israel and the West were primarily interested in eliminating the highly destructive weapons in Syria's hands as defensive weapons, such as chemical weapons. The destruction of the state of Syria was a goal in itself for some Asian Arab countries. These countries acted on what seemed more like a hostile tribal vendetta, rather than geostrategic equilibrium in international or regional decisions.
As slow and confused as the Syrian regime was at the beginning in taking any reform steps that met either the full or partial demands of the people, there was great haste in arming and militarising the uprising. On the one hand, this made it lose civil rights and a plaything in the hands of those who fund and arm it. The West tried to repeat the Libyan model by using the supremacy of regime forces against militarised opposition forces as justification for foreign intervention. However, Russia and China took charge of protecting Syria from Libya's fate and the strength and integrity of the Syrian army and its ability to stand up to flocks of terrorists of all stripes. As fast as lightning, figures who call for normalising relations with the Zionist entity emerged as leaders of the opposition, and popular support for this model of change directed by the regional and international enemies of Syria plummeted.
Terrorists flocked from all corners to this large Arab country, which is one of the main pillars of the Arab nation. Tainted funds from major Western countries and key oil states fuelled the ongoing war in Syria. Although in the end the Syrian state decided to surrender chemical weapons to tame the Western beast from destroying its military capabilities, this did not impact the position of Arab countries funding terrorist groups in Syria. These countries deal with Syria with the logic of tribal invasion that wants to annihilate the other party with no rational, political or moral deterrent.
Like Iraq, Syria needs a regional-international initiative by forces interested in unity, integrity and stability there to end the war and dry up sources of terrorism. It needs to build a real model of political participation and respect for freedoms, human rights, equality and justice, while returning all rights to the Syrian people who, after suffering such tragedy, have the right to freely choose who will lead them in building the future, destiny and course.
In Libya, the West successfully manipulated the militarisation of the revolution, the loss of civil rights and the weakness if rebels in the face of the regimental army to provide cover for NATO's intervention. This has brought Libya to the brink of rupture and collapse as a state today. It is notable that Libya was one of the pioneer Arab countries to liberate the oil sector from Western domination in the 1970s. Libya owns a large supply of oil reserves at 47 billion barrels, or four percent, of world oil reserves. This wealth and control of it has always been the target of major US and Western oil companies who have great influence on successive US administrations. If Libya does not receive strong and firm support from countries interested in its unity and independence, the cycle of chaos and instability could erase the remaining elements of a united country in this important Arab state.
In conclusion, the regional stage in the Arab world is poised for chaos and sabotage of state structures in many Arab countries by regional and international forces. At the same time, it is also poised to overcome the colonial attack by the West and its regional minions, as long as there is a leading regional power capable of picking and choosing regional and international alliances that can help remedy the Arab condition based on truth and justice.
Egypt, due to its geography, history, demography and heritage, is capable of playing this role as long as its people realise the task at hand, and the importance of a concerted effort to build on the domestic front. Anyone who wants to play this role must have a strong domestic foundation before they start.
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