Jerusalem was already lost 50 years ago

Fifty-one years has passed since the shameful defeat of the Arabs in the 5 June 1967 war, which resulted in Israel’s occupation of Sinai, the Golan Heights, the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem within six hours. This day passed silently, like any other, and the Zionist Arab media did not even stop to address it. It is as if nothing happened on that day. Meanwhile, the Israeli media was celebrating its victory over the Arab armies and its restoration of Jerusalem, and two weeks ago, it celebrated Nakba Day in Jerusalem, the day it seized Palestinian land. It marked this day with the move of the American embassy to Jerusalem and considering it the capital of Israel.

Since 5 June 1967 the Arab world has been experiencing the consequences of this terrible defeat. What remained of historical Palestine was lost, along with Jerusalem, which belongs to all of the Muslims of the world, not just the Palestinians. However, Jerusalem was not lost on the day Trump declared Jerusalem as the capital of the Israeli state and decided to move the American embassy, on 14 May 2018. Instead, the city has been lost since the defeat in June 1967.

All of the catastrophes that befell the Arab nation over the past 50 years were a result of the June war, entered into by the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser recklessly and without proper preparation. Half of his army were in Yemen, suffering from besiegement and defeat. He announced the closure of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli navigation, which was basically a declaration of war against Israel. He made this decision as if he were going into a match rather than a war of fate for the nation, based on his chants and popular speeches that ignited the Arab streets, who love Palestine and are willing to sacrifice all that is precious for the sake of its liberation from the Zionist desecration. The Arabs from the ocean to the Gulf believed Abdel Nasser’s lie that he was going to throw Israel into the sea, but woke up to a startling truth, i.e. a horrible defeat and those who were supposed to be thrown into the sea had occupied more Arab territories in three Arab countries, along with the loss of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque. It is strange that those who call themselves nationalists still raise pictures of Abdel Nasser and repeat his empty chants even though it was him who lost the land, Jerusalem, and Al-Aqsa Mosque. We did not see any reaction or positive action towards Israel’s arrogance in Gaza and its numerous raids and attacks, nor did they take action when the American embassy was moved to Jerusalem. Even worse is their position towards the Great March of Return, as they were not content with silence and did not hold their tongues, like when the embassy was moved. Instead, they attacked this peaceful movement and considered it suicide for the Palestinian people without a considerable price.

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It is strangely ironic that at a time when the compass deviated, the national standards changed, and the ideological concepts are altered, these Arab nationalists, with the position they adopted, are in the same trenches with their liberal and secular opponents. These people condemned this peaceful movement and they are the same ones who condemned armed resistance against Israel.

For the past half a century, the Arab world has been in a vicious cycle and its people have been suffering from a state of imbalance because of the deviated compass.

This is the doing of their leaders, who have bargained with the Palestinian cause, starting with Gamal Abdel Nasser, and continuing until today. Although this took on different forms and shapes, it had the same goal, i.e. to preserve their position in the leadership. They believed that the cause is the price or tax to be paid in exchange for maintaining their position. Hence, the Arab leaders have become the guards for Israel’s borders and its agents in the region, governing in accordance with what is dictated to them. They are now calling for warm peace and rushing to liquidate the Palestinian cause by means of the so-called deal of the century. It is doing so in order to normalise relations with Israel and establish economic and even military partnership with it. They are also moving towards forming an Arab axis consisting of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, along with Israel, in order to confront Iran and perhaps even Turkey, who is hosting the Muslim Brotherhood, i.e. their common enemy. They have even declared this enemy to be a terrorist organisation. The war they have announced internationally is a war on terrorism, but in fact, it is a war on Islam.

The state of imbalance plaguing the Arab nation is a result of the deviated compass and it would not have occurred if it weren’t for the defeat in June 1967 and what followed over the past 50 years. This includes fruitless negotiations they call peace negotiations and fantasy leaderships whose purpose is the rein in the resistance, which concerns the Israeli enemy and haunts it. However, such leadership is an authority for security coordination in order to protect the Israelis from their own people, who are fighting to restore their land stolen by the enemy they are protecting.

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The most dangerous result of the deviated compass within the Arab nations is the bulldozing of the Arab mind before bulldozing the land by the Israeli enemy. The Arab Zionist media and the elites produced in American and Zionist centres funded by the oil-rich countries, known as the petrodollar writers, played a role in this. This is because they carried Zionist ideas aiming to erase the Muslim and Arab identity of the Palestinian cause and to form a new Arab heart that has no hostility in it towards Israel. Instead, the Palestinian nationalism and cause would fall from their hearts and minds and they would call for public normalisation with Israel. Unfortunately they have managed to penetrate the fabric making up the Arab nations during this time of imbalance. This is an extraordinary and emergency situation. I want to reiterate that this would not have occurred if it weren’t for the June 1967 defeat, which has been ignored by the media outlets because this situation was created under their watchful eyes.

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However, a shining light remains within the nation, i.e. the courageous Palestinian people in Gaza and the huge sacrifices they are making  despite the unjust siege. They are determined to continue their peaceful Great Return Marches despite the fall of martyrs, whose numbers have exceeded 150, and the wounding of over 700 Palestinians. We have also witnessed the heroics of the resistance factions who established a state of deterrence against the enemy, prompting it to run to the Security Council to complain that Hamas, which has terrified the enemy with its mortar missiles and whose rockets were not thwarted by the Iron Dome. This is despite the fact that Israel possesses an arsenal of nuclear and non-nuclear weapons. This nation will never be defeated. A nation that gives birth to Razan Al-Najjar, a 21-year-old young woman who tended to the wounded during the Great Return Marches and was shot by the treacherous Zionist bullets, making her a martyr, is a nation who loves life with dignity and self-respect. As Mahmoud Darwish said, “it is neither life nor suicide. It is Gaza’s way of declaring it is worth living”.

This is the cause of my optimism and the reason I say that this emergency state, the state of imbalance as a result of the June defeat, will not last for long. It is destined to disappear, like all of the situations the nation went through, such as the states of fog, lack of vision, and the deviated compass. However, this compass will inevitably return to point in its natural direction.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.