War for Peace, or a plea for real change?

The Zionist experiment in ruling over Palestine has been a summary failure

They say you need war before you can have peace. The same holds true for Palestine, sadly the hundred plus killed in the past week and thousands homeless from Gaza are the targets of this war, to build a scenario where the US, UN and its Israeli ally can manufacture an accord called “peace” which strengthens Israel’s brutal occupation and little else.

The history of this conflict is well known and sadly very one sided. Since Britain occupied Palestine in 1917 they worked diligently to create a new state at the behest of the Zionists with the Balfour Declaration of 1917, only one of many indications that they were prepared to run roughshod over the owners and inhabitants of this blessed land. Following the declaration of the state of Israel in 1948 and the forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Muslims from their land, several “scenario” wars ensued, whereby the Arab regimes of principally Jordon, Egypt, Saudi, and Syria acted as though they would expel the occupier, but in reality put little forward in the way of forces or commanded that those forces withdrawal after offering token opposition to Israel. The results of the 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, and 2008 wars and intifada’s were predictable with Israel strengthening its position and taking yet more land.

Sultan Abdul Hameed the Second warned of this very scenario following his rebuff of the overture of the Zionists who wanted to buy Palestine to settle some of the Uthmani state’s debts.

His statement was as firm as the current regimes of the region are spineless:

“Please do tell Dr. Hertzel not to take any serious steps towards this issue. I cannot concede one single hand span of the Palestinian land for it is not mine to concede. Palestine belongs to the Muslim Nation (Ummah) My people have fought hard for this land and irrigated it with their blood. The Jews might as well keep their millions. If the Khilafah State one day fell then you can take Palestine without any price. But as long as I am alive, I would rather be cut to pieces than to see Palestine cut off from the Khilafah State and this shall not happen. I cannot agree to the mutilation of our bodies as long as we are alive.”

The establishment of Israel was indeed made possible in the aftermath of the destruction of the Khilafah and through the complicity of treacherous Muslim regimes who have helped create the myth of Israeli strength and invincibility bringing great shame upon the Muslims. They were in David Ben Gurion’s words “the first line of defence” for Israel and remain so.

Despite victory in these scenario wars Israel wants and needs more. Even with treacherous peace accords involving Turkey, Jordan and Egypt it is not enough. They need the whole of the region to capitulate, recognise the theft of the land they call their own and give formal legitimacy on the world stage. A legitimacy which will ensure greater obstacles for a future sincere Islamic state in returning the land to Islamic authority.

The Two State Solution?

This proposal is not “Two State” and is no “solution”. The proposed Palestinian “state” will have no foreign policy, no military to defend itself and little control over its budget. With no control over its borders as now, there would be scant opportunity to develop a functional economy, with the geographic challenges of managing what is effectively a series of refugee camps dotted around the West bank and Gaza, hardly a serious proposal for an operational state.

It is truly shameful that the international community has consistently and blindly backed Israel, a state which has ruled the region with an iron fist, rekindled the worst of apartheid as they separated Jews from Muslims with the enormous concentration camp fence scarring the centre of the land, and repeatedly boycotted (economically) and attacked (militarily) an occupied population that morally and by all norms of international law should be under their protection.

Israel’s demands can never be met. No right to return for citizens that have had their land stolen, a permanent capital of Jerusalem, protection and peace (signing away permanent rights to the land they have taken), and a weak and subservient Palestinian population with few rights or hope. But of greatest issue is that the Muslims of this region and indeed globally cannot accept such a solution in light of the Shariah injunctions.

The Prophet (saw) said:

“Whosoever gives even one hand span of Muslim Land away, Allah will grant him an equal hand span in Hellfire.”

Allah (swt) commands in Surah Mumtahana:

“Allah forbids you with regard to those that fight you for your deen, and drive you out from your homes, and support others in driving you out, from having any relation with them. And those that do so are wrongdoers”[TMQ 60:9]

The central position of Al-Aqsa Masjid in Islam is well known. The abandonment of the third most holy site in Islam can and will never be tolerated, no matter how many years it takes.

Regime change or the same old story?

With change starting to sweep the region new hope was given that the change of regimes would mean a new determination re Israel. Would Mohamed Morsi take a strong line against Israel, use his forces to defend the Muslims of Gaza, or be promoted as “peace maker” to add weight to US/Israeli aims to fortify Israel’s position in the region?

The recently agreed ceasefire whilst welcome in ending the bloodshed, for now, has deferred the issue. And it is hardly a ceasefire when the Muslim armies are not in theatre, they have never really been available to defend the lives, honour and lands of their brothers over the past 65 years! Consequently the Muslims will never feel secure in Gaza and the West bank with Israel and its apartheid policies and politicians who are ready to wage war prior to their elections to garner electoral support. Nor will the Jews of the region feel secure with a government and system that separates citizens whether Jews from Europe or Africa, or Muslim families that have lived there for hundreds of years.

The Zionist experiment in ruling over Palestine has been a summary failure. Peace, security, rights of ownership and enjoyment of land, fair trading opportunities are but a distant dream, particularly for the Muslims of Gaza and the West bank. The only time in history in which this region functioned fairly for Jews, Christians and Muslims was under Islamic authority (Khilafah), in which all are treated as citizens and oppression of any is a crime.

This was exemplified during Umar’s Caliphate in his contract with the Christians of Jerusalem:

“This is the protection which the servant of God, ‘Umar, the Ruler of the Believers has granted to the people of Eiliya [Jerusalem]. The protection is for their lives and properties, their churches and crosses, their sick and healthy and for all their coreligionists. Their churches shall not be used for habitation, nor shall they be demolished, nor shall any injury be done to them or to their compounds, or to their crosses, nor shall their properties be injured in any way. There shall be no compulsion for these people in the matter of religion, nor shall any of them suffer any injury on account of religion… Whatever is written herein is under the covenant of God and the responsibility of His Messenger, of the Caliphs and of the believers, and shall hold good as long as they pay Jizya [the tax for their defense] imposed on them.”