American Financial Aid: A Symbol of Our Defeat

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Who is the greatest obstacle standing in the way of restoring the Palestinian national rights? We Palestinians ourselves, because we are weak. And so long as we remain weak, others — Israel and America foremost among them — will have no inclination to restore to us any part of our established national rights, and they will retain every incentive to keep attacking us and chipping away at our dignity.

Many rejoiced at the financial support Obama offered the Palestinian Authority during his recent visit to the region, but they do not seem to grasp that the Americans are buying Palestine and the Palestinian national rights with this money. The Americans have realized that our mouths water heavily at the sight of the dollar, and they are certain that with every payment our national demands crumble in favor of the rise of our appetites. This is economic peace, and what it means is turning Palestinians into groups of unproductive beggars.

…[the decline] of our national standing, and our acceptance of it only confirms our acceptance of humiliation and disgrace. Obama is an enemy, and an enemy does not honor his enemy — he humiliates him, and money is the instrument of humiliation. Had friends been the source of money directed toward liberation and the restoration of rights, the matter would be different; but when the loaf comes from an enemy, the poison is mixed into the flour.

We will rail against the settlements, and we will keep cursing Israel, but Israel will keep confiscating land and importing settlers, and there is a world of difference between cursing and building. Money does not require us to stop our curses, but it stuns us the moment it raises our standard of living along with it. Even as I write these few lines, I hear a Palestinian folk poet on the Maan satellite channel saying: “Let the daggers strike me, mother, rather than have a scoundrel’s rule fall upon me.” With all due respect to the folk poet and her patriotic intentions, her words do not describe us: a hundred scoundrels, rather than go hungry.

Some genius will stand up and object: but where, then, shall we eat from? “Better the poison that kills us.” But whoever finds his sustenance only in the hand of his enemy does not deserve to live.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “المساعدات المالية الأمريكية رمز هزيمتنا” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.