US SECRETARY BLINKEN…A PUSSYCAT IN THE MIDDLE EAST, Is It time for Palestine’s Nelson Mandela moment?

Marwan Al Barghouti (often described by both moderate Palestinians and Israelis alike as Palestine’s Nelson Mandela), jailed by Israel for years, yet could he be the peacemaker for the Palestinians of both Gaza and the West Bank, and therefore continue from a place of power to lead the Region towards a Two State Solution? I took this photo way back in 2003 posted on a wall in the West Bank city of Ramallah…he’s still in an Israeli jail.

Over the last month, after the horrendous attack by Hamas of civilian and military targets from the Gaza border into Southern Israel, I’ve watched Antony Blinken, the so called US peace maker get taken apart from all sides in this latest and definitely worst conflict (not war…yet) since the 1970s. And at present he still has Turkey to visit before returning to the US.

He’s gone from giving Israel his country’s government’s 100% backing to so called defend itself, to raking it back and reminding Israel of fighting Hamas within International law, and limiting civilian casualties…as if the Americans didn’t know what the Israeli response in Gaza would be this time!

We’ve gone from the dreadful killings of around 1,400 Israelis by a terrorist group to an unspeakable now close to 10,000 Palestinian civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip alone. That doesn’t include the uptake of Palestinian civilian deaths by Israeli settlers in the West Bank during today’s olive picking season.

For years now, this has been the opportunity for settlers to threaten and often kill the olive pickers, who often travel from their small “enclaves” between illegal Israeli settlements by donkey to pick their olives with their families. Once the settlers stop them from doing that, the pickers lose their living, the Palestinian enclave loses it’s economy, and the settlers move in…destroy the olive groves, park a sea container on the land and live rough from it (thereby claiming that land for themselves), bring in bulldozers to flatten the land and burn out the ageing olive trees. Then once protected by Israeli police and IDF, they begin to build their settlements. From 2001-2003 I watched this with astonishment.

There is absolutely no doubt that the losers here are those just trying to get on with their lives on both sides of the divide, the Israeli and Palestinian civilians that live within their own internationally recognized borders peacefully.

When I was in Gaza during the Second Intifada, the Palestinian Authority was in charge, but it was rapidly losing out to a Hamas body that was showing the people that they could stand up to Israeli incursions better than the PA. Eventually they would take over the leadership and running of Gaza. At the same time Arafat was surrounded by Israeli soldiers inside the West Bank, and unable to lead his people as a legitimate leader should be able to.

The Palestinians were split…and when any population is split it weakens. And when it weakens it is in danger of becoming radicalized.

It was at this point that a real leader was needed to show that unity and living in peace with Israel under the Two State Solution was the only way forward.

Step up Marwan Al Barghouti, it’s 2002, and many people that I spoke to who were moderates desperate for peace and a Two State Solution, to work with some give and take from both sides, believed that Barghouti was the one person to take over from Arafat and push the region towards peace.

The problem is…it’s not the Israeli and Palestinian civilians that have the say.

Today, while he remains in an Israeli jail along with some 6000+ other Palestinians, the ultra right wing leadership of Israel’s government, I believe know that Barghouti could well be a peacemaker, and could well become the Mandela of the Middle East. They want the Palestinians split, they don’t want a Two State Solution…which is exactly why he’s still in jail…leaving all of the Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank under either an extremist or a weakened governance.

You don’t even hear about this man in the West’s mainstream news…that’s astonishing given that the networks have been covering the region extensively for decades.

I’m no Middle East “expert.” I’ve just spent time there, mainly during conflict…but with my eyes and my ears open…and the ability to ask sensible and pertinent questions of my own, no matter what media team that I was assigned to, to give security advice were reporting on.

Perhaps with eyes open, and being there without the Western spin from government and media talking heads, my judgement is clear.

However, as there isn’t much being done by our own government, except to give it’s full support to Israel pretending it’s a big global player like the US…or is it…my heart goes out to the families of those Israelis killed on the 7th, the civilian hostages, their families, and all of the civilians of Gaza and the West Bank who are affected at this time.

The Israel/Palestine cycle of violence continues…and I know it doesn’t have to.

Judge for yourselves.