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11 Feb, 2015

To really understand why Israel fears a future Palestine, visit the Mekong countries

Siem Reap, Cambodia — In order to truly and fully understand why Israel fears the birth of a state of Palestine, try visiting the Mekong countries. What’s the connection? Read on.

Forty years after the defeat of U.S. forces in Vietnam, peace and opportunity prevails throughout the Mekong river countries of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, all of which are emerging from decades of conflict and dictatorships and experiencing a historic swords-to-ploughshares transition. It is akin to the emergence of the Eastern European and former Soviet bloc countries after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.

Tourism is a major economic driver, attracting investment and talent. Trade and transport are on the rise. Sure, nation re-building is replacing one set of problems with another, such as rich-poor income gaps, deforestation, corruption, etc., but those challenges are far more manageable in the absence of conflict.

The same patterns of economic growth, vibrancy and opportunity will be replicated in a free, independent state of Palestine.

And that is precisely why Israel fears its creation.

Investment, tourism and economic development will rush into Palestine. Without having to spend a single cent on marketing, Muslim and Christian spiritual travel will open up. Millions will visit the new country in support and sympathy. Hotels and airports will emerge. Highways and railways will be built. Palestinian creativity will flourish. Many conferences and events will extol Palestinian culture, history and heritage.

The benefits will then spread to the surrounding countries and the rest of the Arab world. Instead of being wasted on guns, drones and missiles, Arab money will flood into education, health and infrastructure. The world will rush to do business with the young Arabs and take advantage of their intellectual resources, creativity, talent and purchasing power.

Israel will be left out in the cold. No-one will want to do business with a lying, conniving government and society dominated by Jewish Zionist fanatics.

Most important, the world will hear the Palestine side of the story. Satyamev Jayate. The truth will triumph.

Museums will document the humiliating treatment of Palestinians at Israeli checkpoints, the blockade and repeated destruction of Gaza, the terrorism of the fanatic Jewish settlers, the diversion of water resources, the human rights violations and the dozens of UN resolutions ignored by Israel, backed by the military power of America and the monetary power of the Jewish oligarchs.

Palestinians will be invited as speakers at international conferences on human rights and rule of law. They will be appointed to global committees and councils to share their experience of life under the yoke of occupation.

And then the world will begin to wonder how a people who suffered so much at the hands of the German Nazis can today do unto others what was once done unto them. How can they perennially crave global sympathy for the Holocaust while ignoring, and indeed seeking to silence, their own treatment of the Palestinians?

The entire narrative of history will change. Worse, it will open up challenges to the brandishing of false anti-Semitism accusations as a means of silencing opposition and dissent.

Israel will lose big time. Peace and prosperity in the Arab world will become the biggest threat to Israel. Its weapons dealers will no longer be able to prop up the Israeli economy by selling security equipment to counter the threat of “Islamic terrorism.” Israel will have to share water resources with the Palestinians. It will be hugely embarrassed when tourism to Palestine hits 10 million in no time. Israel will then have to beg for talks with the Palestinians to get a share of this cake.

For that to happen, the Israeli-built apartheid wall will have to fall.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims Iran is trying to wipe Israel off the map. In fact, it is Israel which wants to wipe Palestine off the map, and is working slowly but steadily to make it happen.

Witness the progress and development under way in the former conflict-ridden Mekong countries, and the potential for replicating the same in Palestine, and it will become more than obvious who will be the winners and losers, and who really fears the consequences of a just, balanced and permanent peace in the Middle East.