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Ever since Hamas's resounding electoral victory on 25 January, Israel and her guardian-ally, the United States, have been rattling their sabers, threatening to punish the Palestinians for electing the Islamic movement instead of the corrupt Fatah group, to run the Palestinian Authority (PA) government.

Israel, a manifestly full-fledged apartheid state, has seriously escalated its institutionalized terror against Palestinian civilians by restricting the movement of individuals and flow of goods and services within the West Bank. Moreover, the Israeli government has decided to permanently stop transferring Palestinian tax revenues to the PA in what is being referred to as "silent induced starvation."

For its part, the US is just parroting Israeli threats, even without bothering giving even a scant thought to the Palestinian view point.

The latest drivel from Washington came on Friday (23 February) when President Bush said that it was up to Hamas to decide if the next Palestinian government would receive aid from the international community (who elected him to speak on behalf of the international community). Bush, probably the most ignorant President America has ever had, said Hamas would have to recognize Israel, disarm, and accept all agreements reached between Israel and the PA to qualify for aid.

Well, Bush and his money can go to hell. The Palestinian people will not give up their homeland and their rights for a monetary bribe from its tormentors. We will not give up our inalienable right to freedom and justice in return for some financial inducements. A free woman would rather starve to death rather than sell her body to an evil blackmailer. And America and Israel are the evil blackmailers of our times.

Besides, why on earth should the Palestinians recognize Israel in return for nothing? Has Israel recognized Palestine so that Palestine could recognize Israel? Moreover, which Israel does Bush and cohorts want us to recognize? Is it I948-Israel? 1967-Israel? Israel with the West Bank? Israel with the Golan Heights? Israel with the Shaba-a province? Israel with East Jerusalem? Israel west of the Apartheid wall? Or, indeed, Talmudic Israel extending from the Nile to the Euphrates.

How could the Palestinians possibly recognize a state that has no borders? Indeed, Has Israel determined her borders?

More to the point, recognition is exchanged between sovereign sates, not between a state and a fragile, autonomous entity languishing under foreign occupation. The PA is not a state, it is not even a state in the making, given the continued and unmitigated building of Jewish-only colonies in the West Bank, which has effectively killed any real prospect for a viable Palestinian state.

And the “disarm” demand. Well, if Hamas and Fatah were to disarm, then, for heaven’s sake, who would protect Palestinian civilians from the Nazi-like Israeli onslaught? America? We once trusted America to protect our refugees at Sabra and Shatilla near Beirut in 1982, only to see her allow the certified war criminal Ariel Sharon, in concert with Christian militiamen, to slaughter thousands of helpless women and children, very much like the Gestapo and Wehrmacht did in central and Eastern Europe more than sixty years ago.

Furthermore, It is really difficult to comprehend why only one party to the conflict, and specifically the weaker party, is asked to disarm, while Israel, a nuclear power, which also has the US, the only superpower in the world, at her beck and call, is given carte blanche to murder children, assassinate politicians, terrorize innocent civilians, demolish homes, and reduce Palestinian population centers to new, updated brands of Auschwitz, Treblinka and Bergen Belsen.

Indeed, one is prompted to ask whether the Palestinians pose a real threat to Israel, a country that possesses the most formidable military arsenal in the entire Middle East, including some 600 state-of-the-art fighter Jets, some 5000 combat tanks, and thousands of artillery pieces, as well as the estimated 350-400 nuclear bombs and missiles, with all delivery systems.

Is it true that this state feels threatened by the occupied and tormented Palestinians who have a hard time feeding their children and even a harder time reaching their jobs and schools and colleges and hospitals, thanks to these Gestapo-like Jewish roadblocks and checkpoints whose main function is to torment, humiliate and frustrate these helpless people.

And they want us to accept the "past agreements" reached between the PA and Israel. Well, what agreements? The Oslo Accords? Hasn't Israel killed the Oslo Accords? Does the Oslo Agreement allow Israel to build 280 hateful colonies in the West Bank? Does it allow Israel to build this satanic apartheid wall in the depth of the West Bank?

Besides, are we supposed to accept the Oslo Accords according to whose interpretations? Israel considers the West Bank and East Jerusalem "disputed territories" while the PA consider these territories "occupied" rather than "disputed". And the Americans and the Europeans refrain from spelling out their respective interpretations, opting rather to ask the rapist and his victim to sort out things among themselves.

And the so-called "roadmap"? Well, will Mr. Bush and all other world leaders be nice enough and tell us clearly and concisely which "roadmap" they expect us to accept? We say that because we are affronted with multiple "roadmaps" not just one "roadmap".

So, are we supposed to accept the "roadmap" with the fourteen Israeli reservations (each of which is sufficient to corrode document and eviscerate it of substance)? Are we also supposed to accept President Bush's pledges to Ariel Sharon's, namely that Jewish settlements in the West Bank ought to be annexed to Israel?

The Americans and the Europeans, if they can demonstrate independence from Israel, must first address these concerns before hectoring the victims to accommodate the morbid whims of their victimizers.

In fact, We suspect, in fact we are certain, that the real motives behind the American-Israeli pressure on Hamas is to push the Palestinians to capitulation to Israeli insolence.

Israel, to begin with, doesn't need any recognition from Hamas. However, because Hamas is viewed by some international circles as the last Palestinian effort to withstand Israel's designs to liquidate the Palestinian cause, Israel and the US are effectively trying to push Hamas to the corner in order to demonstrate to the Palestinian people that even Hamas wouldn't do them any good.

This is the truth about the present Israeli-American discourse. They don't want a peace settlement based on international law and human rights and UN resolutions, but one that would reflect Israeli hegemony, insolence and bullying.

Indeed, it is this brazen dishonesty on the part of Israel and the US that prevents Hamas and the vast bulk of Palestinians from taking steps toward a possible peaceful settlement with the Zionist state.

Well, Hamas is damn right. The PA recognized Israel in 1993, and what was the result? Did Israel recognize Palestine? Did Israel stop building settlements? Did Israel signal any readiness to give up East Jerusalem or allow the refugees to return home?