The 2017 UN Circus: Mingling of the Bombastic, Fools, and Idiots By Mazin Qumsiyeh Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, September 25, 2017

The big circus at the UN reminded us of characters from a Chinese puppet theater. The bombastic mingled with the fools, the idiots with the more idiotic, the funny characters and the puppets whose strings and overlaying hand were so poorly done. The strings sometimes got entangled. Everybody pretended in their own way to believe the show especially the characters themselves. Netanyahu pretended that normalization with the Arab states will keep him his job as it will divert attention from his scandals. The pathetic Yemeni appointed Saudi puppet pretended that more bombing by western powers not of Yemeni children will regain him his lost presidency.

Newer actors slipped in a bit more authentic voices whether bombastic (Trump) or a bit more rational (Macron, Rouhani). But the old guard had the most easily recognized non-authentic voices. 

The award for the make-belief performance must go to Mahmoud Abbas who had a good act pretending to his people and to others that begging and pleading works. Perhaps this is because he had the longest act of pretending (since the 1974 ten-point program that pretended that appeasing the west gets you points). His aides and advisors sheepishly explain to those who ask that he is helpless and that he must play the game. Thus, Abbas reasserted he will continue in peaceful ways to beg for a state along the 1967 borders even as any idiot knows this is never in the cards. He asserted he will not demand basic human rights to all Palestinians but only those in 1967 areas. The two-state “solution” (illusion), as any person who reads history, is the most ridiculous “make belief” part of this poor kabuki play. There has never been in history a two state division of a country between colonizers and colonized. Such struggles fall into three models/scenarios in terms of

outcome: 1) an Algerian model, 2) an Australian model, 3) a Mexico or Brazil model. Since the first two are extremely unlikely (perhaps impossible), the third is the most common outcome (one state for all children of colonized and of colonizers). There is no fourth scenario for outcome of such struggles.But ultimately the question is what each of us wants and how WE work to achieve our objectives. Actions speak louder than words and we urge all to work together for a more peaceful, just, and environmentally sustainable world. 

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