Watching the tragic events unfolding around the world, from starvation in Somalia to rioting in London, we Palestinians are not feeling vindicated but merely sad and angry.  For a long time many of us said that the increasing chasm between the rich and the poor (the haves and the have nots) has grown to obscene levels.  The Soviet Union had in many ways replaced the chasm between workers and owners of capital with a chasm between elites of the communist system and millions of impoverished people.  But the cold war had kept the reigns externally on unrestrained privatization and capitalism in the third world. 

Once the Soviet Union collapsed, a vacuum was created and the greedy capitalists moved in.  In the privatization mania of the 1990s, the wealth of nations was replaced with the debts of nations. With the help of the IMF and the World Bank (some with key connections to Israel), third world countries were saddled with debts that were in some cases many times the size of the GDP of those countries.  But the capitalist mania affected countries large and small.  In Russia, the phenomenon stripped Russia of its natural wealth to put billions in the hands of oligarchs; most of them ended up in Israel as Russia tried to reclaim some of its plundered wealth.  In Greece, the debt and government expenditures could not be sustained by the tourism industry (itself shrinking world-wide as the middle class shrinks). Spain, Portugal, and Italy also have problems. 

In the Arab world, the Arab spring turned into a bloody summer. Dictators thought that if they were more brutal they could survive longer than the dictators of Egypt and Tunisia.  But people also have no clear alternatives and some of these revolutions need time to hold meetings and plan for the day after (the post regime collapse).  The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu (whoses family is from the U.S.), had pushed for privatization in his first term in office in 1996 and 1997 and continues now with his extreme right-wing coalition.  The more moderate and reasonable Israelis saw the damage this was inflicting and now, a small uprising has ensued (300,000 out on the streets).  Protesters just gave their demands, which include social and economic equality.  The Israeli stock market plunged in line with the plunging stock markets around the world. There is a price to be paid for spending billions on apartheid walls while 25% of your population lives below the poverty line.  There is a price to be paid when the U.S. wages a $3 trillion war on Iraq (to control oil and to help Zionism) and other costly wars on Afghanistan, provides costly help to Israel, and more.  The U.S. racks up debt and lives beyond its means (as China rightly points out).  The value of the U.S. dollar plunges and gold, which is now $1754/ounce, will keep going up. Around the world, prices of commodities and basics (food, housing etc) goes up while incomes do not even grow as fast as inflation.  Worse is yet to come as countries grapple with the widening social and economic gaps brought about by misplaced priorities that allocate trillions to the military and leaves crumbs for food, education, and healthcare. 

As the world spirals seemingly out of control, millions of Palestinians are remarkably quiet and philosophical about these things.  We Palestinians used to lead social transformation and provide models for transformation and challenging oppressive regimes. The PLO leadership used to help mediate conflicts around the world, but under the new unelected leadership, they cannot even solve the conflict between Fatah and Hamas (a prerequisite for moving forward).  It seems that after decades of challenging the system, the older generation of Palestinians got tired and weary.  But a new generation inevitably arises. This happened repeatedly with each uprising; so far 15 or more uprisings, waves that are 7-15 years apart. But still, many people rightly see peace here as critical to peace around the world.  This is not only because it is so obscenely wrong to keep denying 11 million people their basic human rights.  It is also because billions around the world believe in Christianity and Islam and they will not continue to allow a few Zionists in power centers to foment conflict and war to avoid facing reality. 

We are in the middle of a transition in global power, a global intifada that I spoke of in my messages and articles last year.  The old centers of global power (in Russia, Europe, North America and by extension Eurocentric Ashkenazi Israel) will lose power and new emerging powers will take place. It is a shift from the Northern to the Southern hemisphere. All global transitions in power over the past 4000 years have involved tremendous dislocation and pain and upheaval. Population trends (aging among Euro-Caucasian populations around the world, becoming more youthful in other countries) and the impending global environmental catastrophe, will accelerate the trend.  As activists who care about fellow human beings and about earth we must help move things in the right direction by minimizing the pain of transition while not standing in its way. 

For those who are religious, they can take scriptures from their faiths that deal with that social justice and disregard the fanatical texts.  From the Torah, they can take “What does God require of us: To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God,” and discard the tribalistic notions wherein God gives license to murder the other. From the New Testament take the Sermon on the Mount and “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called Children of God,” and ignore the notions of unique salvation only through certain beliefs.  From the Qur’an, take the statements about no compulsion in religion and disregard the notions of religious superiority. For those who are not religious, a reading of history and social transformations can show indeed the natural transformation of societies and give equally valuable lessons.  We can emphasize how we have achieved good things such as ending slavery and ending many wars and gaining civil and women’s rights. 

The choices we make must be rooted in morality, justice, and caring for one another, especially the most vulnerable sectors of our society. We do have an untapped reservoir of ingenuity, resources and beauty to more than make up for the ugliness around. Humanity that creates great science, great art, great music and great social movements surely can cope. We just have to believe in each other and more importantly act on our beliefs. 

As an example: There are 81 U.S. Congressmen visiting “Israel” this summer to pander to the lobby.  Ask your congressman to come visit the Palestinians in the ghettos and the refugee camps.