Remember Palestine?
The Palestinian struggle used to touch quite a nerve in Pakistan. But that was once upon a time long, long ago. We were pretty close to Arafat since the beginning of the PLO, and hosted a good bunch of their refugees in the Zia days. But then, as the struggle moved down in the headlines, our interests waned in it too; not the least because Kashmir never triggered any passions among the Arabs. Fast forward two decades and Palestine hardly finds a mention here, save in theJamaat’s ‘labbayyak ya Ghazza’ compulsion that even its own crowd doesn’t understand.
That is why the recent Paris peace conference went largely unnoticed in Pakistan. 18 months ago John Kerry gave the conflict 18 months to find closure, implying that he was finally the man for the job. 18 months later, days ago, all he could claim was “progress”, though nobody could quite quantify it. That was because they could accomplish nothing more than warning Trump against unilateralism, and further entrenching the feeling that Abbas represents the Palestinians because Israel allows him to, not his own people. Otherwise he wouldn’t be in the 13th year of his four-year term. Despite the conference, Netanyahu continues to green-light settlements on acre-upon-acre of stolen Palestinian land every day, and there’s nothing anybody – not even once President Obama’s bold snub or New Zealand’s shocking initiative at the UN – can do about it.
For some strange reason, the collective international voice of reason, and mainstream opinion – including newspaper editorials! – across the Muslim world, still hopes for the fabled ‘two state solution’. Yet anybody who’s followed this conflict for a while, and of course the average Palestinian himself, knows that the ‘two state solution’ died even before Arafat bit the dust. Maybe Donald Trump’s no nonsense approach will accomplish what Kerry though Obama, for some reason, might. So far, though, all he’s promised is moving the embassy to Jerusalem. If that will make anybody smile, its Netanyahu.