By Adeel Ahmad
As I lay in the pool of my own blood, half my body buried under the ruble and the ruins of what five minutes ago was my ancestral home, Where my father taught me how to walk before his father told him how to walk ….
Yes, it’s me as I gasp for air because the force of the concrete is pressing against my chest and with each breath of air, the ruble constricts around me like a Zionist snake constricting it’s victim. I am Palestine….
Yes, it’s me in shock where my mind is trying to tell my body, it’s all a dream and it will be over when I wake up in the afterlife; while you sleep peacefully in your abodes of abundance in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, uae so on and so forth…
Yes, it is me. My name is Palestine as I breathe the fumes of the bomb that took away my family, my little 2 year old daughter who called me baba. When I came home with nothing; not even a piece of candy for her after a failed day of obtaining any labor, she still welcomed me with open arms and her smile was as divine as the smiles of Angels themselves..Alas I can not even move to gather the small pieces of her angel body that lays across the ruble to give her a hug goodbye before i join her in a few minutes….
Yes, this is me as the shine in my eyes slowly fades away due to lack of blood and oxygen in my Brain; but don’t be fooled. All of my life is flashing right before my eyes right now in full splendor – My wife the ever patient companion through thick and thin, through sickness and health, through poverty and abundance – She was sitting right beside me as we were about to open our fast ..My Mother, bless her smiles, was on the other side with my little son in her lap, looking at us her whole universe …
We didn’t have much to eat but it was enough to take us to tomorrow..not that it matters anymore.. My little son, the man of the house, just 4 years old but wise beyond years. I never remember him asking me for anything; neither candies nor toys. Now that i come to think, I never even saw him laugh. He was an old soul in the body of a 4 year old, walked to the end of the street with me every morning as i went to search for work and waited for me there every evening when I returned home…he insisted on carrying my tools on the short walk back home and in those few steps he became my strength…
Yes, this is me as my eyes have grown dark and I can’t see but my mind is still echoing with distant memories..i remember they said Pakistan has got nuclear bombs. Now they will come to save us they said…yes i remember celebrating in the streets of gaza of khanyounis camp of ramallah the sense of pride…but as time passed those happy moments faded away too like the memories in my mind are fading away as i descend in to the dark abyss of the hereafter..
Yes, this is me as my soul soars above my crushed body and I rise towards the heavens I can see the ruins of my home. A little more height and i can see clouds of smoke rising from the Gaza strip all around me. I hear screams and I see other souls departing the open air prison that I called home …I See settlers on the other side of the wall on high hills sitting in camping chairs lighting camp fires and having beers while they see us being killed…I see it all…
Yes, this is me. My Name is Palestine and I see a lot of things, but my regret is what I don’t or rather didn’t see in my life time.
• i didn’t see…I don’t see the custodians of the two holy mosques declaring sermons to the Ummah to come to the Aid of Me and my people in Palestine..I didn’t see them donating their Oil money and their zakat to light our homes so that our children could know how it feels to have luminescence in the night, to have heat in the winter and to have cooling in the summer.
• I didn’t see the Neo Ottomans, the turks, the warriors, the liberators of Muslims, I didn’t see them coming to the aid of the forgotten people of Palestine with their EU trade agreements and with their nato bases and with their armies..
• I didn’t see the Mujaheddin of Syria and the isis of the Iraq and Ikhwan of Egypt coming to the aid of the oppressed brothers here, in the only place where Jihad should have been declared 60 years ago.
• I didn’t see the ayatollahs of Iran, the clerics whose words spit fire towards the western nations but whose actions speak otherwise.
• I didn’t see the armies of Azerbaijan and Pakistan coming to the aid of the oppressed of the Ummah for which they have to answer very soon.
Yes, my Name is Still Palestine and even as these are the last words, I will ever utter, I will still remain Palestine since I was here before Mosis and I will remain here after Israel will be long gone…For Palestine is not made out of flesh and blood or brick and stone but it is made out of the flames of resistance that can never be put out. Yes, my Name is Palestine and I am the last thorn into the side of Zionism, and if I fall you shall all be next lest you wake up and Hold on to the Rope of Allah and Unite not for the sake of my salvation but yours .
Renee Garcia Brown 
LL Ballack
quote: I didn’t see the ayatollahs of Iran, the clerics whose words spit fire towards the western nations but whose actions speak otherwise.”
the general feeling among the public here is that the current Israeli assault on Gaza is Israel’s attempt to provoke Iran into making a dumb move. Iran is negoatiating a very delicate, complex, and historic deal with the West. What has actually happened, and is still happening, is that the USA and the other rich nations are now trying to strike a deal with Iran like rational adults. For the first time, they are treating Iran as a legal and lawful sovereign nation with the same rights as any other. Where before, they had been claiming “Iran? What Iran? We don’t recognize Iran or any of its alleged rights.”
Now, no one in Iran is more concerned with the safety and well-being of the people of Palestine than the ayatollahs. For the Iranian government, protecting Palestine is not just a matter of principle, it’s a matter of strategy, like it is with Iraq and Syria. Iran is currently helping the Iraqi and Syrian governments fight off insurgents and terrorists. And now terrorist insurgents are attacking Gaza, but Iran will not make any overt move to defend Gaza or the Palestinians at this point. It would be a crude mistake, and it’s exactly what Israel is hoping for. To drag Iran into war.
But either way, Iran sends its fair share of aid to Gaza on a regular basis. Food, medicine, knowledge, etc. To be frank, the Iranians are picking up the slack too. I don’t think there are any more “muslim states” left, at least not in the old sense (ie. states belonging to a vast islamic nation.) Saudi Arabia is certainly not one, and neither is Egypt. In this particular situation, however much it may hurt and set back the Iranian economy (to help rebuild and repopulate Gaza), it is a hit that Iran cannot avoid. Do you honestly want Iran to send commandos, advanced missile technology, drones, battle ships and fighter jets to Gaza? Israel would be rubble within days. Just days. But Iran would also suffer great losses in the ensuing retaliatory strike. Suddenly, the American media will announce that the Nazis have come to eliminate the Jews, and the US government will decide to fight to save the Jewish people from the Holocaust, again.
Mentioning Iran in such a context, as you have done, is a mistake. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and Kuwait have all been complicit partners in the Israeli scheme against the Palestinians. Iran has been propping up the Palestinian resistance for over thirty years, practically all by itself.
The actual situation in Palestine, and the way it is portrayed by the media are two completely different things. For example, Gaza is under an extreme, totalitarian authoritarian regime. The people there cannot receive foreign aid unless the Israeli military OKs the shipment. They have electricity like only half the day, and even less on some days. So, for decades Israel has been bitching and whining about rockets fired into their territory from Gaza. Almost always, pretty much as a rule, these rockets tend to cause zero damage to the Zionist settlements, in terms of property damage or cost to lives, and yet more often than not, Israel cites these rocket attacks as its reason for bombing and invading Gaza. This time however, they had to beef it up, so in addition to the regular infernal rain of rockets from Gaza, they claimed that three Israeli teenagers were murdered by Palestinians, and their bodies were dumped somewhere so the Israelis could find it. No one or group ever officially claimed responsibility for this, but in any case, before anyone could realize what was happening, a Palestinian youth (or two, or ten) were killed by Israelis as retaliation and the war that has claimed hundreds of Palestinian lives in the past few days began.
What I want to know is, what kind of strategy was this on the part of Hamas? What were they trying to gain by this exploit? In a war, the battling parties tend to act with the results of their acts in mind. That is, they don’t make a move without considering the response that the move is going to elicit. So, these guys killed three Palestinian children, dumped their corpses in the street, because they wanted what? to provoke Israel to massacre Gaza? to make the Jews hate the Arabs? And if that wasn’t enough, then they decide to start launching rockets, all of which missed their targets by wide margins. What were they trying to accomplish? The people of Gaza have no professional military training, no advanced weapons and no international support and backing, but Israel has tons of each. The people of Gaza must be mad to provoke the Israelis like this. Unless, the Mossad killed the three Israeli teens, and the Mossad killed the first Palestinian in retaliation, and the global media made it appear as though a war had broken out between Israel and Palestine through “natural causes” or through the aggresion of the Palestinians.
This war is not a war at all, as far as the Israelis are concerned. It’s like a sadistic king who beats up the malnourished, sickly, unarmed prisoners from his dungeon, just because he can, or to blow off some steam. Like picking a rabbit by the ears from a cage. Israeli jets bomb Gaza’s neighborhoods, then Israeli commandos come in and shoot the place up. Palestine is no thorn in the side of Zionism. If the Israelis wanted, they could exterminate the Palestinians practically overnight. This is Israel angry and acting out because a Muslim state (Iran) is being treated as an equal by the USA.
*sigh* I realize that it is often the “winner” that writes the history, but human behavior is not always logical. It is too easy to attribute a conspired motive and actor in the deaths of the Palestinian youth. That view, however, doesn’t take into account the epilog. Within MINUTES of a declared cease-fire, the Palestinians set off another volley. To follow the conspiracy, are we also to believe that Mossad captured the controls and fired on Israel, themselves? Perhaps some could believe such (I’ve heard enough similarly outlandish thoughts), but the logistics, in this case, wouldn’t add up.
In addition, did the Israeli’s dig the tunnels?, hire the Palestinian suicide bombers? et.al. – doubtful, at best.
Perhaps it’s just me, as I work with complex systems for a living, but…
When any person or group starts to point a finger of guilt, I am reminded:
1. Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
3. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in they brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4. Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
But, then again – I suppose for many they haven’t realized that we are a family of man (human), and are all brothers and sisters.
Rather, they view their enemies as the dogs that should NOT be offered that which is holy. *shrug*
Unfortunately, for this problem to begin to be solved, an issue near to the root cause (not the actual root cause, mind you – so please don’t waste time arguing that point) would need to be resolved: Jerusalem. Worse, to my thinking, there are only 2 somewhat viable solutions (though each has some negative fallout):
a) turn it into an independent city-state (as per Vatican City) dedicated to the evolution of the monotheistic religions having birth in the region (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), as all have a stake. Internationally protected, and maintained. Or:
b) remove it (nuclear explosion – though it would upset most if not all, we, as humans, can finally move past it, and attempt to begin reconciliation.)
I know – more than 2 cents worth….