Does Peace Still Have a Chance?

The breakdown of the peace process was only a sign there was no light at the end of the tunnel

BY: Anisa Mehdi

On Friday, October 13, at 1 p.m., a crowd of Muslims is expected to gather outside the White House in Washington, D.C. They will come not to chant, not to throw stones, not to disturb the peace. They are coming to pray. According to the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which is organizing the mass Friday jumah prayer, "the event is designed as a demonstration of Muslim outrage over ongoing Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians and holy sites."

Outrage is an apt word for current Arab and Muslim sentiment toward Israel and toward American policy in the Middle East. Muslim and Christian Arabs alike have expressed mounting frustration with what they see as the Clinton administration's unwillingness to demand an end to Israeli aggression against Palestinian civilians.

American Muslims and Christians sympathetic to the Palestinians say frustration on the streets of Gaza and Ramallah and other cities in the occupied territories has risen to a new level. They say there is nothing left to lose. Not even peace.

In order for any kind of peace process to be reinvigorated American Muslims and Arab-American Christians are calling on the American government to stop sending military and economic aid to Israel. Military aid alone amounts to approximately $5 million a day.

"I believe for the peace process to continue, Israeli tanks and rockets, all made in the U.S. with our tax money, should be withdrawn from the occupied territory and from all Islamic and Christian holy places," said Ghazi Khankan of the Islamic Center of Long Island (ICLI), New York. Military hardware intimidates Palestinian civilians, he asserted, driving them to defend themselves with stones and slingshots.

"The media should not compare as equal the heavily armed Israeli militia with unarmed civilian demonstrators," Khankan went on to say, voicing the opinion of many Muslims who feel media coverage of the Palestine-Israel conflict is not even-handed.

"Israel has been relying on unlimited and unconditional moral, political, and financial support from the United States," said Nihad Awad of CAIR. "That has given Israel permission to do what it pleases. The outcome is a bad reputation to the United States, a bad image in the Arab and Muslim world, and has not served the interest of the U.S."

Many supporters of Palestine feel the situation now is more hopeless than ever. Robert Moore, a leading member of the Coalition for Good Government, pointed out that "Israel can carry out those types of actions in response to our coming to the defense of our holy sites, and the reaction is that the aggressor should be appeased. You can never appease an aggressor!"

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