What a speech! Some of the words were so finely knitted together; it was like listening to an old familiar song. And What a song it was. The words were so soothing to the ear. So much melody in so few words. And the man who uttered the words was no less than the President of these United States giving the traditional annual State of the Union address to a joint session of congress. George Bush used the occasion to sing such a lovely tune for the whole world. What a voice! So certain. So firm. Such consistent vibes. Like a one man opera.
Before we go on to sample the fertile imagination of the White House speech writers who crafted such inspiring words, we recommend that next time they pass the text by lawyers at the State Department before delivering it to the President.
Listen up, all you who suffer from the heavy hand of evil repression delivered by an oppressive overlord. George Bush will be sending in the Marines to whip your tyrants and oblige them to desist from inflicting further harm to your bodies and your souls. The day of deliverance is upon us. And the slave shall go free. The tormented shall throw off the shackles of their tormentors. Your destiny will be of mornings graced with the radiant light of liberty. And you will abide, for ever more, in the warm and secure blanket of human dignity guaranteed by a state that treats all its children with decent laws, administered in a spirit of brotherly justice.
George Bush not only feels your pain, a la Clinton. George Bush is here to end your pain and demolish those who dare inject pain into your daily lives. He will spread American compassion across the globe and embrace the whole human race, Muslims included.
What follows is but a small sample of what Bush promised the people of the world on a lovely winter’s night in Washington DC. George said:
“This time of adversity offers a unique moment of opportunity — a moment we must seize to change our culture. Through the gathering momentum of millions of acts of service and decency and kindness, I know we can overcome evil with greater good. And we have a great opportunity during this time of war to lead the world toward the values that will bring lasting peace.
All fathers and mothers, in all societies, want their children to be educated, and live free from poverty and violence. No people on Earth yearn to be oppressed, or aspire to servitude, or eagerly await the midnight knock of the secret police.
If anyone doubts this, let them look to Afghanistan, where the Islamic “street” greeted the fall of tyranny with song and celebration. Let the skeptics look to Islam’s own rich history, with its centuries of learning, and tolerance and progress. America will lead by defending liberty and justice because they are right and true and unchanging for all people everywhere. No nation owns these aspirations, and no nation is exempt from them. We have no intention of imposing our culture. But America will always stand firm for the nonnegotiable demands of human dignity: the rule of law; limits on the power of the state; respect for women; private property; free speech; equal justice; and religious tolerance. America will take the side of brave men and women who advocate these values around the world, including the Islamic world, because we have a greater objective than eliminating threats and containing resentment. We seek a just and peaceful world beyond the war on terror.”
What a speech. Such words humble mortal men. I imagine some young Palestinian woman, having endured a life under brutal military occupation, must be bursting with joy at the sound of such lovely sentiments. No, doubt, some Palestinian mother is looking over her young ones and imagining the world that Bush promises to deliver. Middle aged Palestinian men, sitting in a cafe, in some refugee camp surrounded by Israeli tanks, must have let out a huge sigh of relief. Their brutal angry lives will not be repeated by another generation.
It is so easy to translate Bush’s speech into infinite hope for the Palestinian people. America will no longer compromise with the Israelis on the human dignity of Palestinians. The United States will insist that the native people of the Holy Land be free from the demeaning humiliating occupation. Sharon will be made to pay for every war crime against innocents in Qibya and Sabra and Shatila.
The rule of law, including international law will be honored. Illegal settlements will be dismantled. The belligerent Israeli occupation will come to a halt. Israeli Arabs will be treated on a par with Israeli Jews. Killing a Palestinian will be as great a crime as killing an Israeli. Collective punishment will stop now. No more torture. No more imprisonment without charges. No more assassinations. No more land confiscation’s for exclusive Jewish settlements.
Bush also will insist that other countries, especially our ‘allies’, place Limits on the power of the state. This will no doubt restrain the hands of a criminal thug like Ariel Sharon. The state of Israel will no longer be empowered to treat its colonial subjects with utter contempt. Arbitrary military rule will be ended and the Israeli Army forced to retreat to the borders of June 4, 1967. The state of Israel will no longer be granted bright American green lights to start a war or intensify their regime of repression or grab ancestral land from the native people of the Holy Land.
Bush will also insist that the Palestinian women be granted their full civil rights by the Israelis, along with Palestinian men, Palestinian children and Palestinian babies. Because he is so insistent on delivering justice to Palestinian women, the President will see an urgent need to end the Israeli occupation. Any survey of Palestinian women will certainly demonstrate that the number one threat to their pursuit of happiness is the Israeli thugs laying siege to their towns and villages. Every Palestinian woman fears for her man, her brother, her child, her mother and her sister.
They know that there is no such thing as freedom for just one gender of Palestinians. Bush will show respect for Palestinian women by liberating all Palestinians from thirty-four years of land thieving Israeli annexationist thugs.
As a firm believer in individual property rights, George Bush will demand that the Palestinians be compensated for the loss of real estate that amounted to 78% of their patrimony. In addition, the Palestinians will be compensated for the loss of use of all the lands that were stolen under a barrel of a gun and given to illegal Jewish settlers. The Israeli army’s misuse of water resources will also be taken into account and fair remedies will be delivered to the long-suffering Palestinian refugees.
To further immerse the Palestinians with American values, George Bush will insist that they be granted the right of free speech. Of course, this means that Israel will no longer be able to dynamite Palestinian Television and Radio stations, intimidate Palestinian and foreign journalists or imprison publishers. It might even mean that the Palestinians may have the right to respond to five decades of slander on the pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post.
In another firm promise, George Bush spoke of a wonderful vision of equal justice. Make no mistake about it, this means that a Palestinian living under Israeli rule will be allowed the same rights as a newly arrived Jewish immigrant from Brooklyn. It might even mean that native born Palestinians get an option to exercise their ‘right of return’ to the villages where they were born. Maybe it might also mean that an Israeli Arab can purchase land anywhere in his country or move into any apartment in Tel Aviv. Maybe it might also involve state services being delivered equitably to Israeli Arab towns and villages. Things like roads, schools, clinics. Maybe when the Israeli police kill Israeli-Arabs in a demonstration, they will be treated as criminals. Maybe we finally get to drag a serial war criminal like Sharon to the Hague for a cot right next to his old pal, Milosovic.
But best of all, George Bush will insist that the whole world embrace one another in a spirit of religious tolerance, that greatest of American traditional values. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have Palestinian Muslims and Christians teach newly arrived Yiddish supremacists how they managed to live in tolerance for 1400 years before their ancient eastern Mediterranean lands were declared a ‘homeland for the Jews’ by some minister in London. Maybe it would be a good exercise for the American government to initiate a study and find out how the oldest Christian community in the world, the one converted by Jesus, survived 1400 of years of Arab and Turkish rule. And it has all but disappeared after five decades of Israeli rule. I suggest George Bush consult with the Pope in Rome to get details about the ongoing decimation of the Christian presence in the Holy Land.
George Bush’s vision is just so wonderful. The beauty is it is so easy to implement. Cut the aid to Israel. Lay siege to its harbors. Land American Marines on the Green Line. Have every Palestinian and Israeli turn in their heavy weapons by a date certain. That includes Israeli nukes and other weapons of mass destruction. Limit both sides to police equipment. Guarantee the borders. Insist both countries write a constitution that honors human dignity, the rule of law, gender equality, property rights, equal justice, free speech, religious tolerance and minority rights. Finito. Next assignment.
I bet George Bush will have no trouble selling his vision to the Palestinians. The vast majority of Americans will be glad to see peace and harmony in the land where the Abrahamic traditions were gifted to the world by the ancient prophets of Palestine. If only George Bush would dare to challenge the Yiddish supremacists over here and over there. If he is serious, Bush can start by putting Sharon under arrest when he arrives on February 7th. I believe a judge in Belgium wants to review his conduct at Sabra and Shatilla. To be certain of the outcome, Bush can hold him in Washington DC and try him for his war crimes in Qibya.
Do that and watch America’s star rise in the east. Arrest that one thug and the world will be a better place. Don’t get me started on old tunes. I am still humming the tune that Bush was singing earlier this evening. Sure sounds grand.
Mr. Ahmed Amr is Editor of NileMedia.com in Seattle and a regular contributor to Media Monitors Network (MMN).
