COMMON SENSE
Hassan Al-Haifi
We should not believe that just because Yasser Arafat has been given some freedom of movement within a limited area of the Palestine Authority domain that all is well that ends well in the Holy Land. Nor should we believe that because the investigation of the Jenin Refugee Camp has been stalled and finally suspended until only God will be able to bring Ariel Sharon and his hooligans to justice, that the Israelis have become angels again and have ceased their relentless quest to obliterate the Palestinian people. Everyday now, Israeli tanks are still encroaching here and moving out of there, never subsiding from their destructive firepower, destroying Palestinian homes without fail in a systematic campaign. They make it as rough as possible to live “side by side” with their “peace loving democratic neighbors that Israel is made out to be.
It is a fact of life that the Palestinians have to live with that indeed they are only at the mercy of the Divine, who will eventually find the path to their liberation of the Palestinians from the wanton evil menace that the Zionist cancer of Israel is unabashedly proving to be.
It is also a fact of life that because of the way we – the rest of us in the peaceful areas of the Arab world – are living and governed that Israel can do what it wants in Palestine, and for that matter anywhere else in the Arab World. How can we be so meek and helpless and watch our blood brothers subjected to so much humiliation and literally do nothing, except pray that George Bush has a kind streak in his heart, to give the Palestinians one day of respite from all the agony of siege, hunger starvation, Apache missiles, American Centurion and other tanks, F-16’s, deadly snipers and … ad infinitum? Yes, we, or more expressly our leaders are the reason why Israel can do what it wants and whenever it wants to the Palestinians, to the Lebanese and even to the Egyptians. Our leaders can do no more than say a few words pleading with Israel to make peace, because all they want is peace. Even if the enemy insists it is war, all our leaders can say is that they only want peace. They are ready to give up Jerusalem, Mecca and even Medina just so that they can have peace. Ask our leaders what are they doing with the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of weapons they are buying in the span of 10 years, and they tell you they just want peace everyone except their own people! The weapons are to protect them and to fill their pockets from the commissions they get from each weapons deal that is signed in the secret plush offices of brokers of death in London, New York and Paris. We have an enemy that is spending much less than our leaders are spending on weapons, but we see their hardware everyday working on television. But, the Arab people are beginning to really wonder, where is all the hardware that our leaders are buying, and why waste all those resources then, if they are not for facing up to the Zionist threat that does not know any bounds.
Yes, because of the way we are, we will never be able to do anything to stop the enemy of our destiny, of our children and of God until the Lord finds a way out from the predicament that we are facing, in our own turf and the ominous threat that looms from Tel Aviv, and Texas.
A knowledgeable friend of mine once pointed out to a small gathering he had in his house that the only way we will ever be able to defeat the Israelis is when we become like them. He means democracy, transparency and all the God given rights of governance that are part and parcel of what the Prophet Mohammed (Peace of Allah be upon him) came to teach us some 1500 years ago.
We are even distant from the teachings of our religion! How can we expect to face up to a Zionist threat to our being, when we have forgotten what God has blessed us with, the religion of Islam, as God truly ordained it, and as the Prophet Mohammed taught us and showed us in practice?

SAADI SALAMA
PALESTINIAN DIPLOMAT IN SANA'A
Why is the foreign media is focusing on the Palestinian arena and not the Israeli arena?
The answer is simple; it is Israeli president Ariel Sharon’s underestimating the situation. The entire world, not only the media, began to realize the size of Israeli crimes, upon seeing the scenes of the massacres and other atrocities and violations committed by Israeli soldiers. That included tying Palestinian youngsters’ hands behind their backs, stamping them like livestock, and blindfolding them. Their only guilt is being young Palestinians.
Add to that the assassinations in the streets of Palestine. All these scenes call for international rage including the usually one-sided pro-Israel media. Furthermore many are asking why do we blame the Palestinians? Didn’t this war waged against them exceed all limits of the human endurance?
One day the Jews will judge Sharon, not only for his crimes, but also because he has subjected them to another wave of international hatred. This is the first time since World War II, when Europe gas awakened from its feeling of guilt towards the Jews, because the victims of the Nazis have impersonalized their executioner and exceeded their executioner in practicing racism and war crimes.
Sharon’s practices have changed the European role from protecting the Jews into condemning them, aside from piling European rage that might lead to taking severe actions against his government. Because of Israel’s organized state terror, many countries are joining Europe in taking measures against it.
Some public rage is growing also in Israel, but their actions are dull and their free writers are hiding, because Sharon threatens them with the accusation of breaking the Israeli national consensus. Yet they are not asking themselves, where does Sharon lead them? Especially when he is waging a criminal unconventional war that could never be conclusive.
After all this is not a war at all. It is merely a wide military operation, against civilians that possess some rifles at the most and much rocks: civilians that are a detrement to struggle at all costs for their freedom. Some aspects of the struggle consist of violence, and some of terror, but only to match and respond to the state organized terror.
When can such a war end and how?
We can imagine few options while we face this criminal attack wave.
First, according to Sharon’s publicly declared presumption, finishing the Intifada within 90 to 100 days, which means that he will practice horrible massacres frightening the Palestinians, forcing them to collectively flee from the country, thinking that uprooting trees, destroying houses and burning pre-harvested crops might increase the odds of massive Palestinians migration out of Palestine.

No mass migration
This did not happen. No mass Palestinian migration was detected. Yet another wave of migration was detected. It is the Israelis migration that recorded a new record of fleeing from the country, meaning that what Sharon has anticipated has boomeranged to his people. This is an indication that this option is doomed to fail.
Second: This option is a Palestinian one, because they have decided to struggle and stand up for their rights. They believe that this is their last resort that should be defended until the last drop of their blood, because they know it is a matter of life or death. Some Palestinians went further on to suicidal acts against the Israelis, sacrificing their lives for their believes.
Deep in the Palestinian collective memory lays the first and the second compulsory expulsion, and the pain, agony, and suffering that goes with it: memories that have charged them with super powers to stand against any other attempt of a third one, even demolishing several thousands of houses failed to weaken them instead it raised their moral and charged them with more determination to achieve their internationally recognized rights.
This is the option that the Palestinians gambled on. When the holocaust reaches its climax proving the military option’s failure, the political option will replace it. This option has turned facts upside down establishing that the military superiority is never decisive, but when the organized state terror with all its capacities is confronted with a small hidden power with all its unexpected surprises, equation could be established and goals could be achieved.
At this point, after every Palestinian suicidal operation against the Israelis and after calls of George W. Bush the USA President to the Palestinians President Yasser Arafat to stop the terror, they become shallow calls unable to understand the Palestinian transformation that now influences the whole region.

More failures on the way
The USA Administration has put President Arafat in a position where he has nothing, yet he possesses undetected powers to unite the whole Palestinian people in one line like trained soldiers, but does not say the magic word because there is no light in the end of the tunnel.
This Palestinian option is the most probable to materialize because it is based on the right of two nations to live in peace, security and independence side by side each in its borders, as equal partners, over this Holy Land, nothing less.
And Sharon shouldn’t bother anymore because he will only harvest more failures, gaining only a growing public opinion against him, in Europe, in international communities and eventually in the USA.

BY BASMAH AWAD
BASMAH998@YAHOO.COM
Even though Islam terminated slavery, we, Muslims, still are judged to be slaves. The true meaning of slavery is much worst than what the editor meant. I can see Israel using the term “slavery” in practice quite more aggressively against our leaders more than that practiced on us by our leaders. Israel is enslaving our Arab leaders in the context of its fight against terrorism.
We, as Arab nations, are slaves in our countries because we are forced to be so. What the editor said is indeed true. We are not free but we are not the ones who chose most of the things that are happening to us. I cannot deny that we may as well be slaves to our own desires.
We seem to admire being called the Third World! I keep wondering who categorized us in this rude way, and where on Earth might the second world be! Is there a huge gap between us and the so called First World?
Accepting the name Third World is in itself an acceptance of being slaves just to be on the safe side. We seem to be peaceful humans who do not want to resist! As a matter of fact, this must have encouraged us to become lazy and accept everything as it is from the very beginning. It took quite a long time for us to find out that we are indeed slaves!
Our leaders first demanded our Palestinian land. Then they demanded peace. We have now arrived to the point where we are begging for peace. At the same time, we demand our leaders to open borders for jihad, to achieve justice, and to boycott Israel. But our leaders never responded positively to their people’s demands. All they did is try to strike deals with the First World to stop the killers from committing further massacres.
Where is the UN, or in other terms the USA-Israel nations? Our leaders are leading us to an imminent dead end. I am confident that if we work together to liberate ourselves and become one strong fist, we can break the wall. But our leaders need to liberate themselves from USA control.
Arab leaders are the ones in continuous fear of possible loss of power that they have been holding on tight for all those years. They want to keep themselves in their glory of the old days! We need to openly tell them: “Who cares if you were a king, president or even a minister? You may be using your power against your people, but you are still a slave to your desires.”
It is not only our country, Yemen, which is suffering from slavery and deteriorating. All Arab nations are suffering too. We do not have to give up hope, however. I used to say, “I can not help others if I cannot help myself;” I still believe in this sentence. However, I can not keep on ignoring others whom I can help even with a word.
Palestinians are our brothers, who will not accept our justification of the lack of action by mentioning the weakness of our leaders. We can not deny the Palestinians’ right to live in dignity and freedom. We can not accept the injustice around us. We can not hide the truth. We can change things once we let others hear our voices. We should be slaves only to Allah.