Against the backdrop of the U.S. administration's efforts to advance its Middle East peace plan, known as "the Deal of the Century," whose terms have not yet been publicized, Salem Falahat, a Jordanian politician and former head of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Jordan, slammed the deal in an article he published. The article appeared on the albosala.com website, affiliated with the MB in Jordan, in the Jordanian MB's mouthpiece Al-Sabil, and in the Hamas-affiliated website palinfo.com under the title "Why the Deal of the Century Will Not Come About." In it, Al-Falahat, who resigned from the MB party in 2016 due to ideological disagreements with it and founded the Partnership and Rescue Party, assessed that the deal would never go through and warned the Arab leaders not to support it. Supporting this deal, he said, would be an act of treason equal to that of the last Muslim ruler of Granada who handed it over to the Christians, and anyone who did this would face "punishment and vengeance in this world and the next." In this context he mentioned Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, who "sealed his own inevitable fate" when he signed the peace agreement with Israel. Al-Falahat added that, even if some Arab regimes accepted the deal, neither the Palestinians nor the other Arab peoples would accept it, and that no power in the world could force the Palestinians to do so.
The following are excerpts from his article.[1]
Salem Falahat (Image: albosala.com)
"The drums of submission are pounding, in advance of the signing of an empty document that will serve the interests of the Zionist enemy [i.e. President Trump's Deal of the Century]. This is why the fogey Kushner, whose pockets are lined with our money, is secretly and openly hanging out with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and his lackeys, with the aim of obtaining an explicit and clear agreement [to the deal] from some of the Arab states. Delegations are on the move [at this time in the region], seeking someone like Abu Abdallah Al-Saghir[2] who will hand over the keys of 'Granada' [i.e. Palestine] – even if not a single one of his family, entourage or servants remain [at his side] – and will fall [down weeping] on the spot, so that historians will [later] call [the place] 'the Moor's last sigh.'[3]
"In my assessment, without self-delusion, no one will dare to take such a treasonous step, because [anyone who does dare] will not escape punishment and vengeance, [both] in this world and in the next. When [Egyptian president Anwar] Sadat dared to light the fuse of submission, in his visit to Jerusalem, he sealed his inevitable fate.[4] Don't you see how many [of the tyrants] who took control of the Arabs are today raising their hands [in surrender?] [This is] perhaps out of fear that one of two fates await them: ...either an unnatural and inevitable death at the hands of the [Muslim] nation for the crime of submitting to the desires of the Zionists, or death and martyrdom at the hands of Zionist agents if they remain steadfast in their views and refrain [from signing the agreement]...
"The Deal of the Century will not come to be as long as blood flows in the veins of the Arab and Islamic peoples, who are too numerous to count and who will never die out. We are a nation that will not stop [existing] even if it is weak and weakening. The Deal of the Century will not come about as long as there is a people in Palestine that learned its unforgettable lesson after the 1948 Nakba. [The Palestinian people] will not repeat the mistake it made when it was intimidated by the massacres at Deir Yassin, Qibya, Al-Dawayima, and other places [that were aimed at] causing it to emigrate from its cities and villages, so that the Zionists could replace it...
"No Palestinian – whatever his culture, tendencies, plans, or circumstances – would dare to agree to [accept] any substitute for his land, which is the same as his honor. If there is a small minority [of Arabs] that deviates [from this],[5] there should be no extrapolation [from it to Arabs in general].
"The Zionist enemy will not succeed in expelling five million Palestinians from their lands – not half of them, nor a quarter of them – for many reasons. The willingness of the Palestine residents, young and old, to stand fast, to sacrifice, and to hold on to their land is one of the greatest elements of might and hope.
"Adjacent to, and close to, the land of Palestine lives the noble Jordanian people, that has vowed to, if it can... mobilize immediately into an army for liberating Palestine, as [it did] a century ago, in 1920. It is impossible to subdue the Palestinian people, or the Arab and Muslim peoples... Even if some official Arab regimes are effectively vanquished [by foreign elements for any period of time], it does not necessarily mean that they [i.e. these foreign elements] will remain on our land forever. Even if the attempts of the peoples surrounding Palestine to obtain their freedom and to take control of their own affairs, seeking to build their state, sometimes encounter difficulties, they ultimately succeed...
"The world is a wheel, and its laws pity no one, and even a criminal or a tyrant does not last forever. I say this not in reliance on Allah or based on [the principle of] postponement,[6] but because through the test of actuality these laws have become a concrete reality. True, at this time they [the Israelis] have material and international support, and the Arab and Islamic laxity is aiding them, but they are in trouble and in crisis, as we are in crisis. But they are robbers and thieves who fear for their lives, and we have the legitimate right [to Palestine], which we will never relinquish, and for which we will die.
"The deal will happen only with [the agreement of] the second party [to it] – the Palestinians– and no power in the world will force the Palestinians to accept it. Those who spread false rumors, who sow despair and defeatism, and who shout slogans that can slash the unity of the single people and [by doing so] serve Israel must stop their perverse deeds in light of all that is happening, because anyone who says that the Muslims are on the path to ruin is the one who is bringing that ruin upon them. Allah alone is the Master, and the deal they seek will not come about."
[1] Albosala.com, June 24, 2018; Al-Sabil (Jordan), palinfo.com, June 26, 2018.
[2] In 1491, Abu `Abdallah Muhammad XII, known as Abu 'Abdallah Al-Saghir, governor of Muslim Granada, was forced to surrender to the besieging Christian forces and hand over the city to them. In Muslim tradition, he is a symbol of surrender and treason.
[3] A reference to the legend about Abu 'Abdallah Muhammad XII's departure from Granada accompanied only by his wives and servants; he went towards the Alpujarras in Granada province, climbed a rise, looked out for the last time over the city with the cross flying above it, and broke into tears. The spot is known as Puerto del Suspiro del Moro ("Pass of the Moor's Sigh").
[4] After signing a peace treaty with Israel, Egyptian president Anwar Sadat was assassinated, in October 1981, by Egyptian Islamists.
[5] Apparently a veiled reference to some Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia, who are reportedly collaborating with the U.S. in formulating the Deal of the Century.
[6] In Islamic theology, irja, or postponement, refers to the concept that Allah will determine whether a Muslim is a believer or an apostate and decide his fate only on Judgment Day. The political application of this principle is that Muslims must not rebel against a Muslim ruler, even if he sins.
