I have a Palestinian Dream
By Ahmed Amr
Editor
NileMedia.com

I have a Palestinian Dream. That someday soon the whole world will come to the rescue of an innocent people being tormented for the unfortunate luck of being the indigenous people of the Holy Land. That Zionist lunatics will wake up and feel disgusted about the crimes committed by the State of Israel. What kind of warped mind accepts an ideology that justifies the dispossession of native Palestinians on the premise that Jews are inherently entitled to confiscate an entire patrimony on the grounds that they are more 'spiritually correct.'

My dreams are simple. I wish the Palestinian/Israeli conflict was a fair fight where Gazans had the power to lay siege to Tel Aviv and put out the lights in Haifa. If only the Palestinian Coast Guard could enforce economic blockades that would give the Israelis a taste of the brutal privations they have inflicted on their colonial victims in Gaza and the West Bank.

Isn't it only be fair to allow Palestinian security forces to patrol the streets of Ashkelon in search of Israeli war criminals involved in murdering innocent civilians in Beit Hanoun? I merely want the Palestinian Authority to be endowed with the power to pick up and put shackles on Knesset members for the crime of approving the carnage in Gaza.

Imagine a world in which the murder and mutilation of an individual Palestinian led to an open criminal investigation of the Israeli perpetrator and their willing American collaborators. Where every single mother of every single Palestinian victim was entitled to compensation at Lockerbie rates - adjusted for inflation. I'd like to live on a planet where international demolition teams had the right to tear down illegal Apartheid walls and send the bill to Tel Aviv.

I have an entire wish list. Wouldn't it be simple justice if the Palestinians could deport a racist Moldovian nut like Lieberman? And wouldn't it be even sweeter if the Moldovian police gave him an official police reception charging him with inciting hate crimes abroad.

Of course, I am imagining a fantasy world where Israelis lose their immunity to commit unspeakable crimes and are held accountable for their brutality. The kind of universe where concepts like 'justice for all' extends to the Palestinians.

It's easy to get carried away and have hallucinations about an American government ruled by men who aren't vicious anti-Palestinian bigots. Imagine if the foreign policy of the United States was predicated on the principle that a Palestinian had the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. What if the State Department dropped its requirement that every employee pass a test confirming their anti-Arab credentials?

I simply want a new reality where every Palestinian is accorded the dignity of being a human being. Is that asking too much?

I dream of history books and news bulletins that don't vilify the victims. Where Israeli censors don't get to approve CNN coverage. I want Palestinians to be accorded the right to sue American media corporations for coordinating their coverage with the IDF. I want Wolf Blitzer, Sulzberger, Murdoch, Friedman and Krauthammer to spend the rest of their lives in a federal penitentiary for collaborating with Sharon and Olmert.

I fantasize about a wrecking ball demolishing Kofi Annan's United Nations and dumping it in the East River. Move the International Court of Justice to the same site and give it the right to try American presidents - past and present - for their role in the mass murder of Palestinians.

I dream of the resurrection of Martin Luther King. Hopefully, his first task back on earth will be to apprehend Condi Rice and put her away for committing war crimes against the Lebanese and Palestinian people. I want to live in an America that honors the Constitution - where the FBI shows up in the White House with warrants to arrest Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld for torture, subverting the Bill of Rights and committing all manner of war crimes against the Iraqi people.

Imagine a world where British law against launching illegal wars was actually applied to Tony Blair. Contemplate another reality - where neo-cons and other agents of the Israeli Lobby were held accountable for the carnage in Iraq.

I long for an Arab world where every dictator and absolute monarch dreads the long arm of the law. I'd like to see every stolen petro-dollar repatriated to the Middle East for development and reconstruction. Imagine if money-laundering legislation extended to the kleptocrats who rule the oil plantations of the Gulf. What would the region be like if oil revenues where distributed to the natives - just like in Alaska. Imagine every Arab - getting his fair share. You may say I'm a dreamer - but I'm not the only one. Cause come the revolution - the looting won't go on.

I dream of a world where the culture clash trash makes its way to the dustbins of history. Where the Judeo-Christian identity movement wackos and their Islamic extremist brethren are relegated to the margins and we can have a rational discussion about the theft of petroleum wealth and the vicious repression of the inhabitants of the Holy Land by extremist Likudnik ideologues.

I dare to dream of a world where spineless American intellectuals get a wholesale price on spine replacement surgery and take on the 'stink tank' operatives of the Israeli Lobby at the American Enterprise Institute and Brookings.

I have delirious visions about an America that promotes justice in the Middle East. Where our congress of villains is ushered into the darkest hole in hell and replaced by men and women worthy of the decency of their constituents. I dream of a city on the hill enraged by the sub-human treatment of the Palestinians and indignant about the mutilation of Lebanon. But I would settle for an America that just stops meddling in the Middle East.

I keep hoping for a world that doesn't wait for Americans to come to their senses and do the right thing. I dream of a coercive planet that says 'Basta' to the criminals in the White House and the State Department. Is it too much to wish for massive non-violent resistance to the racist imperial bloodhounds and war profiteers in Washington? I dream of an organized dollar boycott that would clarify American minds about the sinister economic rationale behind the imperial project in the Gulf.

I dream of a media boycott that will cripple CNN and bankrupt Rupert Murdoch.

Spare me my dreams of Palestinian liberty while you butcher my brothers and sisters in Beit Hanoun. Give me the right to hallucinate about justice as you go about the nasty business of incinerating Iraq. Allow me to hope for a day when the oil wealth of the Middle East enriches the lives of the citizens instead of lining the pockets of gluttonous Arab monarchs, their Swiss bankers and Wall Street brokers.

I have dreams that shouldn't just be dreams - but the law of the land. My hallucinations only confirm the daily nightmares of the Palestinian and Arab people. Six long years into the twenty-first century, these simple dreams are an indictment of a heartless world ruled by scoundrels who have abandoned an innocent people to the blood drenched claws of Olmert's thugs. That this wish list rises to the level of absurdity is vivid proof of the viciousness of American foreign policy towards the people of the region.

Regardless, dreams that never die plant seeds of eternal hope. Some day - hopefully soon - we will live in a world where Palestinian dreams haunt the nightmares of their oppressors. Can't wait for Olmert to hang.

Ahmed Amr is the editor of NileMedia.com