Saddam and Palestine

[Gimel]

There is no doubt that the arrest of the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein marks an important turning point for Iraq and the American-led occupation of this strategic Arab country.

But the question that needs to be answered is how will this important event affect the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

It is clear that many Palestinians have, for better or worse, made a large emotional investment over many years in this one man. Living in a depressed and oppressed state for so long where the balance of forces is clearly not in their favor, Palestinians have always looked for help from the outside. They tried the Soviet Union, the UN, and various Arab leaders, all to no avail until Saddam Hussein appeared on stage.

<snip>

All this created an image of Saddam much larger than real life. No one wanted to believe that Baghdad fell to the Americans that easily. And when the resistance began to hurt the occupiers, the image of Saddam again grew in the minds of Palestinians who began to compare themselves and their resistance to Israel to the efforts of the Iraqi resistance against the US troops.

None of this blind support was logical. Most Palestinians realized they had been duped. The Scuds against Israel in 1991, while making a lot of noise, caused little damage and almost no deaths. They could see that the five-million-strong "Jerusalem Army" was not really intended to liberate Palestine. They were able to understand the level of suffering that he was causing to his own people and the corruption of his authority and its dictatorial ways.

<snip>
The trial of Saddam Hussein as a war criminal will be a good opportunity to demonstrate to many Arabs the fate of those who oppress their own people.
But more important is that Saddam Hussein's arrest and detention undoubtedly ends a myth that has given false hope to many Palestinians: that their salvation will come from the outside.

It will no doubt cause Palestinians to redouble their efforts to depend on themselves and the justice of their cause to rid themselves of the occupation that has preoccupied this part of the world for too long.

The writer is a Palestinian journalist and director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al-Quds University in Ramallah.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1071907510348

[bluesoul]

1. I just hope other war criminals

will be brought before justice as well (Sharon, Bush)...

[Muddleoftheroad]

2. Arafat, Hamas, Islamic Jihad

Tanzim, Fatah, PA, Hezbollah.

It could be a long trial.

[Jack Rabbit]

3. True, it could be long

Yassin, Rantisi, Arafat, Sharon, Bush, Blair, Saddam and many more.

I think Sharon and Arafat should be cell mates. That's the most apt punishment I can think of for both of them.

[DuctapeFatwa]

4. Arafat has constantly asked both US and Saddam for help, both have refused

He wrote Saddam a letter not too long after this Intifada started, and Saddam was all "oh you know my hands are tied, I have other problems" - this after he had done all this big talk about raising an army to liberate Jersusalem!

Not unlike a succession of American politicians who have taken Arafat to bed and whispered how special he is to them, not like those others, and then turned around and filed Israel- the-pitbull's teeth a little sharper, thrown bomber planes across the yard and yelled "Fetch, boy!"

If we can leave Palestine and Israel for a minute, reflect on this:
No country is going to do ANYTHING that crosses the American oilngun business. At least no government is...