What Would You Do If You Led the Palestinians on Israel's Behalf?

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

What would you do if you were leading the Palestinian people on Israel’s behalf? This question relates to the conspiratorial dimension that often appears in the way Arabs and Palestinians think when examining the nation’s recent past and its imminent future. Many of us interpret events on the basis of a Western-Zionist conspiracy carried out with the participation of Arabs and Palestinians, whether leaders or others, and believe that there are hidden factors and forces working in the dark, stabbing us in the back, and surprising us with things that never crossed our minds or occurred to us. Is this a conspiracy, or is it good planning on the part of the enemy and poor planning on our part? Every party in any conflict equation tries to win the battle, and adopts various measures and policies that lead to the defeat of the opposing party, and it is unreasonable for a party to stand before its enemy and announce its plans and measures. The flaw is not in the one who plans, but in the one who does not see planning as part of his responsibilities.

Whether it is conspiracy or planning, let us suppose that Israel has managed to install a Palestinian, or someone believed to be Palestinian, in the seat of leadership of the Palestinian people (this is not a romantic supposition, since Israel has managed to reach republican and monarchic Arab palaces) — what do we imagine such a person would do in the course of implementing Israeli requirements and interests? Let us suppose it is you — not you specifically — I would expect the following:

First: tireless work to destroy the social and moral fabric of Palestinian society. How? The matter is extremely simple, and requires only a few measures that feed feelings of hatred and enmity among people and lead to the disintegration of society, so that a person turns away from concern for public affairs in favor of personal interests that violate the public interest. These measures include:

Surrounding yourself with a corrupt inner circle skilled in the arts of embezzlement, charlatanry, hypocrisy, and lying, who develop their own private interests at the people’s expense, and who indulge in pleasures even in the enemy’s bars and brothels;

Not making competence the primary basis for obtaining a position, but rather servile loyalty. If I am with you, I get a job; otherwise I must go find myself work in which I toil and struggle. This means intensifying the use of wasta and favoritism, since these enslave people;

Stripping the weak of their rights in favor of the powerful oppressor, building a judicial system that entrenches injustice and spreads bullying, and bringing in judges who know nothing of God and are restrained by no conscience;

Taking no care that tasks be carried out, with the “good” employee being the one who does not do his job and spreads corruption within his institution;

The “good” employee is the ignorant one who exploits his position and extorts others. His ugly conduct is the basis of his promotion, as long as it does not become too exposed; but if the scandal is on everyone’s lips, there is no objection to “punishing” him — by removing him from public view to take up another post somewhere new, with a promotion in rank;

If people complain to you, you give them a hearing, and then send their complaint on to the very official they were complaining about, so that he can punish them;

You make yourself a partner in people’s economic ventures, so that no factory is established without you, or one of your henchmen, taking a cut as a partner, and no commercial agency is set up without you being its biggest beneficiary, all without contributing anything to the costs;

You occasionally hold some of the weak to account and punish them for things they have done, in order to appear before the people as a man of principle and lofty morals;

The trusted aide is the one whose hand is always the lower hand — who comes to you asking for money for himself, and jobs and gifts for his relatives, friends, and mistresses; as for the one who wants to serve the citizens and does not possess a base soul, you have no need of him;

The aide you want is the one who agrees to become entangled in shameful acts that turn him into your slave, so that he will not oppose you; as for whoever remains firm in his faith, character, or living conscience, he will have brought ruin upon himself;

You spread your security apparatuses everywhere in order to repress the people, so as to destroy trust among people and spread suspicion in their hearts.

In this way you reassure yourself that people’s morale is declining, and with it the values of collective work, mutual cooperation, love, and beauty recede in favor of the values of cunning, sharp-dealing, and grabbing. People disintegrate as a loving community, torn apart by selfishness and excessive self-love. What is lawful becomes forbidden and what is forbidden becomes lawful, while the corrupt busy themselves performing rites and rituals to give people the illusion that they know God. It becomes difficult for a brother to trust his brother, or a friend his friend, and public institutions turn into self-serving pens that barely manage the minimum of their public duties.

On the security front, I expect you to do the following:

You must pile on the fervent patriotic rhetoric, brimming with resounding words expressing deep national commitment to the cause of liberation, the return of refugees, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Noble Jerusalem as its capital. Do not let anyone outbid you with turbulent, surging revolutionary talk that stirs up emotion and leads to applause and cheering;

You pile on dazzling, garishly colorful slogans like “O valley, may no flood tear through you,” and “O tree, reach up to the clouds.” And you always insist that victory is coming, while stressing that victory comes from God, who never disappoints the hopes of the faithful;

You speak out against spies and collaborators, but take no deterrent measures against them unless you find popular pressure that makes it worth sacrificing a small-time spy. You can always say that killing spies is impermissible, because our society is tribal and marked by a spirit of vendetta. And you can content yourself with having the spy declare repentance and turn to God with two prostrations of prayer, seeking forgiveness — this if the spy is exposed by the people themselves; as for you, you will not exert yourself searching for spies, because they are one of the important tools for subjugating people and sowing the seeds of doubt and division among them;

As for the collaborators who come from powerful families, and the wealthy who wield economic and social power, they are close friends whom you constantly work to dress up in the patriotic guise of partners sharing in your tireless efforts toward liberating the homeland and achieving independence;

You pile on threats carried by the media that always present you as a patriot who will never soften. For example, you can declare that American interests in the region are fair game, that the settlers should not sleep soundly in the coming nights, and that the people of Israel will pay in copious blood if their state proceeds to carry out its threats, and that they should know that our hands are long and our cells spread like a great octopus, ready to wrap around the necks of our enemies at the appropriate time;

You create the impression among the masses that you possess sufficient weapons, that you have weapons the enemy knows nothing of, and that you are capable of waging a long-term guerrilla war that will drain the enemy;

You always make sure that your friends on the other side respond to your threats, so as to build for yourself an aura and credibility before your unwitting people. So I would expect the American Secretary of State to stand before the cameras and brand you a terrorist and a murderous killer, and the Israeli prime minister to erupt in fury and thunder, calling on the world to lend a hand in fighting terrorism and the terrorists lying in wait for the poor Jewish people. In this way you appear a hero, and the Palestinian masses come out to salute you, with the masses of Arabs and Muslims behind them;

You will work to ensure that the military cells you form never reach the point of taking action against Israel, and you will work to pass on information about them, through the network of spies working for you without their knowing that you know, to the enemy, who will arrest the would-be fighters a day or two before the operation. And if a cell does go out to carry out its operation, then you will already have passed the information on to Israel beforehand, so that Israeli soldiers can set up the appropriate ambush;

You always work to ensure that cells are formed with your knowledge, so that no vital piece of security information escapes you that might result in harm to the Jews;

But you have no objection to the people going out in acts of protest against Israel, such as demonstrations, writing on walls, and distributing leaflets threatening the invaders, since these let off steam without inflicting any actual harm on the Jews;

And when talk turns to peace, you hold back, so as not to create an impression that would arouse suspicion. You must appear rigid and insistent on recovering the rights of the Palestinian people.

Through these actions, you try to ensure that the Palestinian people remain an open hand before Israel. Spies spread into every corner and nook, violating private life and privacy, and infiltrating every kind of gathering, including the legislative council, the cabinet, the revolutionary bodies, and the bodies of planning, oversight, and implementation, etc.

On the economic front, you are expected to do the following:

Failing to develop agriculture and neglecting the farmers in a way that makes cultivating the land unprofitable. The agriculture budget must approach zero percent of the general budget, because agriculture means land, and land means homeland. Since our conflict with the Jews is over land, you will do whatever it takes to drive people away from agriculture and from independent food security;

You take a cut of any investment without giving anything in return, so as to discourage Palestinian investors from wanting to invest, driving them to take their money and leave the homeland. As for whoever accepts the terms of the cut, he must turn into a swindler extorting money, unbound by the standards of investment aimed at achieving reasonable profit and contributing to the development of the country;

If any investment does happen, it is better that it be in consumption and entertainment rather than production. The focus must be on restaurants, parks, bars, and delicious varieties of cooking;

You keep relying on others for financial and food support, since this reinforces the lower hand, laziness, and dependency. Of course, you do not want people to go hungry for fear of revolution, so your friends will rush to support you, either directly or through their friends among the Arab regimes. Notice here that you remain a “terrorist” in the media, while your friends will fashion you into the merciful father, forever searching for financial sources to ease the suffering of his people;

You will not use the money that comes to you in a way that serves investment and production, but rather to pay the salaries of mercenary employees, most of whom do not deserve the positions they hold, and to buy consciences. That is, you will become a soup kitchen, or merely an Arab sheikh handing out gifts to hypocrites and charlatans. Thus your doors will be crowded with seekers of handouts, whether in cash or in jobs;

Feeding people scraps is very important for humiliating them and teaching them meanness and baseness. You will feed people scraps to the extent that money comes to you, and you will find those you feed to be the fiercest defenders of what you do and the most fervent glorifiers of your person;

You give support money to those who do not need it, and withhold it from the farmers, workers, and craftsmen who actually produce. You are the enemy of production and the friend of the idle and of notables with empty minds and loose morals.

On the housing front, you will do the following:

You provide no housing support to the poor, specifically the workers and farmers, because they are many and spread over a large area of land. You are interested in limiting the geographic expansion of Palestinian housing, not expanding it. And if you do end up providing something, you will be very stingy about it;

Most of the housing support you give goes to the wealthy, who build lavish homes;

You will not begin building the infrastructure needed for new villages, such as opening roads and laying water and electricity networks;

You will not ask the municipalities to ease the issuing of building permits or to reduce the cost of municipal fees. You will work to keep building costs high, while insisting that the Palestinian bear the expenses of the municipalities and village councils;

You will look upon Zionist settlement, and your chest will swell with satisfaction even as your tongue condemns it, while you will look upon Palestinian housing as a tomb weighing on your chest.

On the cultural front, you will do the following:

Trivial literature is the hallmark of the era, and your favorite writers are those who flatter and glorify, having nothing to do with critical literature that identifies weaknesses in order to correct them, and strengths in order to support them;

You will not work to develop a cultural program that unites the Palestinian people wherever they are, and you will be happy to see Palestinians described as West Bank Palestinians, Syria Palestinians, Lebanon Palestinians, etc. You will certainly be even happier when the people is reduced to Gazans, Nabulsis, and Hebronites;

You work hard to sever the Palestinian people, culturally and politically, from its Arab and Islamic surroundings. Fanatical Palestinianism is the hallmark of your era, and you will exert effort spreading a culture of hatred and grudges between Palestinians and their very close kin, the people of Bilad al-Sham — Jordanians, Syrians, and Lebanese. And you will do your utmost to shift the culture of “enemy relations” toward Bilad al-Sham, rather than toward Israel;

You will not pursue a policy of cultural advancement for the nation, and will let the cultural heritage of fanaticism and tribalism keep gnawing at its sons. You will fight the spirit of cooperation among factions and parties, spreading fanaticism between them, and will place the sons of powerful families on the necks of the people;

Accordingly, your censorship will reach newspapers and magazines, Friday sermons, seminars, and lectures, and will extend into private gatherings, and you will plant your watchmen and spies as eyes everywhere. In your era, the culture of “the walls have ears” will prevail, along with the culture of “whoever marries my mother is my uncle.”

As for education, you make sure to do the following:

You keep the teacher, male or female, under the pressure of financial hardship, so that they do not approach teaching with enthusiasm and energy. You will exhaust them with an excessive number of teaching periods, an excessive number of students per classroom, and near-useless duties. And you will turn the student loose against the teacher, under the pretext of modern educational theories. Your duty compels you to destroy the generation, and you are a master of this task;

The education departments will be crowded with ignorant teachers who harm the educational and pedagogical process — naturally, because you belong to a school of servile loyalty aimed at bringing the people to its knees. This is why wasta abounds in the appointment of teachers, male and female;

You will not allocate sufficient funds for building schools, in order to preserve overcrowding and afternoon-shift teaching. This deprives the student of a good educational opportunity and crushes his morale.

Rote-based instruction suits your purposes, and you will suppress creativity and never reward the creative;

You will use students, male and female, for political purposes, to greet you and your henchmen, so that their numbers can cover for the people’s failure to answer your calls to come out for false cheering;

On the level of councils, parties, and factions, you will work to:

Ensure a majority in the councils and committees responsible for decision-making, in your favor, under all circumstances; and if you feel a majority is not attainable, you simply will not convene the required meeting. You will maneuver through various means, including the use of bribery, threats, and intimidation, or restructuring the committee or council and adjusting its membership in a way that allows you to secure a majority;

Ensure that no organizations emerge to rival your own and that could form a majority overpowering you and your followers, through the following policies:

Increasing the quantity of “feed” at your disposal, through the Arab regimes and with unannounced Israeli-American approval, to buy more people’s support for yourself;

Withholding money from other organizations, and pressuring any parties trying to fund them to stop paying;

Opening fire on rival organizations, in order to weaken and contain them;

Splitting organizations apart, using the abundant funds you possess, and splitting the splits themselves;

Spreading a culture of division, corruption, and strife among the organizations, so as to prevent their mutual cooperation, and so that you remain the arbiter among them;

You will work to fund the organizations financially, especially the weak ones. These are organizations that cannot upset the existing balance of power in the enemy’s favor, and at the same time they give you the face of the democrat who does not merely coexist with his opponents but even provides them with financial support. This grants you the mantle of the fatherly figure and hero of national unity. As for the rival organizations, your stick will be as thick as possible in their face;

If anyone emerges from within the ranks of your own organization, from other organizations, or from among the ranks of the people to rival you, you will not hesitate to use every means available to get rid of him, including killing.

As for religious matters and the holy sites, you will do the following:

You intensify your talk about Jerusalem with fervent phrases, even though your knowledge of the history of Jerusalem is nearly nonexistent, and you constantly remind the people that you are committed to liberating the holy sites;

You will memorize a few Quranic verses and Prophetic sayings to repeat in people’s hearing, so that your leadership carries a touch of Napoleonic piety;

You will call on men of religion who neither fear God nor truly know Him, so much as they chase after their own private interests;

Your men of religion are weak in Arabic, in the philosophy of religion, and in their own character, so that they can be easily ridden, and so that they cannot form a religious leadership for society;

You make sure to pray on special occasions, and to appear on television screens looking as though you are about to collapse from the intensity of your devotion;

It is not necessary for you to fast Ramadan, but it is important for you to make sure that iftar tables are held.

When to advance and when to hold back:

You will not meet Israeli demands immediately, because that would expose you and ruin your plans and Israel’s alike. Instead, you will work to drain the Palestinian people morally, ethically, economically, socially, and culturally. You will work to drag everything on the Palestinian scene toward decline, and you will spare no effort to also corrupt the neighboring Arab peoples, sowing division and corruption between them and the Palestinian people. But this will not be enough for you, and you will reinforce it by inflicting continuous defeats on the Palestinian people on every level.

You will offer gradual concessions to Israel whenever you sense that despair has crept into the limbs of the people, and you will refrain from this when you feel that the people’s morale is high. Despair leads you to concede, under the banner of national interest and cleverness in dealing with the demands and requirements of circumstances, while the people’s fortitude pushes you toward clinging to their rights, since national interest requires that too. You use “national interest” as an all-purpose rag, good for handling any circumstance.

What matters is that your pockets remain full of money, and the Israelis and Americans will not fail you in this, since they always pressure their client Arab regimes to provide the appropriate support; and that the media remain with you: some will attack you, like Israel Radio and the White House, and some will support you, like those broadcasting from Monte Carlo, Qatar, and a number of Arab countries.

After death:

You certainly do not want your mission to end with your death, so if you cannot manufacture a successor, you will work to ensure that the Palestinians remain in a state of chaos after your eternal departure. You must create power centers primed for the kind of internecine fighting that tears the people apart. You leave the power centers to compete in a shameful manner, and allow the formation of armed groups that act as mercenaries for the power centers. And of course, you will have tied each power center, in one way or another, to Israel. Beyond that, you create such massive devastation that any process of reform becomes an extremely arduous task.

You want to die reassured that you have brought the Palestinian to the point of disavowing his homeland and his people, and to declaring, mouth full, that Israel is better than the Arabs.

But a strong people, backed by the depth of a great nation, will not die.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “ماذا تفعل إذا كنت تقود الشعب الفلسطيني بالنيابة عن إسرائيل؟” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.