WASHINGTON — Arabs are well known for their generosity. They receive their guests with open arms, go out of their way to serve them and to make sure that their guests know that they are welcomed. It’s a well known Arab tradition that when a stranger needs a place to stay, an Arab is compelled to host him for three days before the guest is asked even about his name. But while Arabs might be the lords of generosity, they are not stupid. So, I offer my sincere apologies for breaking this great tradition: Mr. Colin Powell, I hate to say it, but you are not welcome.
You are not welcome, because you came to dance on our wounds. You waited until we bled to death and you waited until our President (Yasser Arafat) was humiliated.
You came to tell us to end violence against Israel while we barely got the chance to dig the mass graves in which Israel buried our best men and women.
You are not welcome because you don’t care about my people, for they will have little say in the upcoming Congressional elections, they have no money for you, no votes, no media strategists. They are only refugees, born and raised refugees; life for them is as miserable as death. But why should you care? You have already blamed them for everything, you have denounced their right to defend themselves and let the Butcher of Beirut (Ariel Sharon) knife them with no mercy, as you stood afar and waited and waited.
When the Israeli Prime Minster Ariel Sharon unleashed his massive invasion of the West Bank, many knew that the Israeli General had an American green light. You said yourself that your country knew, although you were gracious enough to tell the press that Sharon’s mission only was “to isolate Arafat” not to kill him. How virtuous of you!
As Sharon led the largest military offensive to be launched against Palestinians in decades, you stood with President Bush, and applauded. You really work well together, Sharon does the killing and you and Bush worry about the PR. “Israel has the right to defend itself,” you boasted. “Palestinians must end their terror,” you justified, as corpses of Palestinian men, women and children were found in the alleyways of Ramallah, and as (Palestinian) policemen were found executed while sipping tea in abandoned buildings.
The whole world condemned Sharon’s actions and called for an immediate withdrawal, while you condemned Arafat and urged a relaxed withdrawal “as soon as possible.” You fought hard at the United Nations to block any attempts to pass a strong resolution that calls for an Israeli withdrawal. Thanks to you, the resolution, 1402 passed, condemning Palestinian resistance first, then calling for an Israeli withdrawal from Ramallah.
The coordination between your government and Israel was very clear, it was such a well constructed scheme that you proved to be a shrewd politician, not just a military man.
The scheme might have not worked too well in its later stages, for the US hoped for a quick mini genocide and Sharon was going for the big guns. You see, Sharon in over 50 years of his career has killed Palestinians, starting with his Qbyia and Bureij massacres in 1950s, up to the Sabra and Shatila massacres, where he butchered up to 4,000 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. He truly acquired a taste for Arab blood. But look at me, I am lecturing you again, lecturing someone who must have read a great deal about the man’s bloody career.
Yet you (Colin Powell) backed his (Ariel Sharon) “war on terror” anyway.
You let him loose in the refugee camps, killing innocents, robbing shops, burning commercial centers like the barbarian he and his army are.
Then you disagreed with Sharon, not in concept, but on technicalities.
It’s true that Israel has the right to defend itself, you said, but it was time for it to leave, for your interests in the region became in jeopardy. Indeed, it was not Palestinian blood that moved you. Instead, you feared that McDonalds and GMC and other big corporations operating in the Middle East might suffer as a result of the Arab anger. But despite the alleged disagreement, you never once mentioned Israel’s need to withdraw, yet you repeated yourself like a broken record, how it was Palestinian violence that provoked Israel to defend itself.
As the bodies of hundreds of Palestinians decomposed in Jenin and Nablus, and as Sharon was working on the final touches, you came to the region, slowly, circling around while being disguised as a peacemaker.
The distance from Morocco to Egypt to Spain, and then to Jordan, was certainly not the shortest nor the quickest way to Jerusalem Powell.
You were hoping that Sharon would be done by then, so you won’t have to deal with any unpleasant disagreement with the Israeli warlords, once you arrived in Jerusalem.
Mr. Powell, you are an accomplice in this Israeli war crime. You are guilty of taking part in destroying my nation with your and your government’s green light. You are guilty of spreading lies to your own people, convincing them that murdering innocents is categorized as a war on terror, that violating international law, besieging a President with no food or medicine, that curfewing an entire nation in their homes were legitimate acts of self-defense. And here you come to lecture us on how to live in peace, you come as a ‘peacemaker’, on a ‘peace’ mission, with a message of ‘peace’. But we all know that this is a lie, and that you knew too well what Sharon’s war meant, its costs and victims.
I do not wish you a safe trip back home, nor do I wish that your McDonalds and oil refineries will grow and prosper. My people’s blood is worth much more than your hamburger, your gasoline and your Congressional elections. Please leave us in peace to count our dead. Mr. Powell, you are not welcome.