"Historic" Handshake?

Recent rumors and alleged leaked news reports have been suggesting that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will be meeting and shaking hands with "Israeli" president Shimon Peres. I will not comment on the actual veracity of this news item, aside from saying that the event is highly unlikely to take place for various reasons. However, I would like to clarify the main issue involving our position toward the Jewish state, which I think many of our compatriots have misunderstood.

Most nations in the world have gone through various stages and developments in their relations with other nations. Those stages have included periods of enmity when the interests between two given nations clash. However, such enmity is normally of a temporary nature giving rise to a possible reconciliation between the two sides with a change in circumstances. Unfortunately, many of our people have viewed our position toward the Jewish entity in the same light, holding the view that a mending of ties with this entity is possible and in fact preferable, as it will ultimately give rise to an everlasting peace. Such thoughts misrepresent the true nature of our enmity with the Jewish state and demonstrate a complete lack of awareness of our national interests.

Our historic enmity with "Israel" is not based on a divergence of certain interests between two sovereign nations. Rather, it is based on the illegal and illegitimate usurpation of our land and our national rights by a group of people with strange, stagnant, racist beliefs. The very existence of a Jewish state on our land is one which cannot be reconciled with our rights and sovereignty ideals. It is neither reasonable nor beneficial to accept the occupation of our land by a people that has no relation to this land whatsoever and that forcefully took this land from our people, its rightful owners, by engagin in mass ethnic cleansing. It is not reasonable for us to accept the continued persecution of our people by these occupiers and the continued swallowing of more and more of our land, while our people are denied the right to return to their homes and their land of origin.

The idea that all these matters can be resolved through mere "peace" negotiations is naive at best. There is not a mere minor disagreement between us and the enemy in the south of our land. It is rather the very concept of such a state that runs contrary to our fundamental rights. The passage of time does not negate this reality. The Jewish state is one that disturbs the natural life-cycle of our people and our nation, as it creates a political entity specifically fabricated and designed to incorporate only people of a particular "religious" background on our land, while expelling our people and denying them their right to the land of their ancestors. It is an unnatural, unhealthy, cancerous entity that can in no way become legitimate in our eyes.

It was a crime to allow the creation of an exclusively Jewish state on our land and it continues to be a crime to support, fund, and aid this state in the killing of our people and the usurpation of more of our land. The fact that a certain number of years have passed since the initial commitment of this crime does not lessen or diminish its criminal attributes. As such, the possibility of a "historic" handshake is not something that we should ever strive for, as it would merely represent a recognition on our part of the right of a foreign group of people to steal our land and massacre our people. As Antoun Saadeh said once: "The hand that stretches out to make peace with 'Israel' shall be severed from the shoulder." This was a symbolic phrase expressing the nature of our struggle with the Jewish entity and the impossibility of ever accepting the existence of such a state based on its very concept.