America that we know...

Amin Al-Hajj

America is not the country that has always presented itself as a protector of democracy and human rights, nor is it the country that promotes the values of justice and freedom as its political and media discourse appears to suggest.

The America we know - we Arab peoples - is the country that throughout its long history has not hesitated to stand behind the occupying power and its tyranny, and to cover up its crimes and sadism, even if the results were devastation in our homes, destruction in our countries, and catastrophes that would be passed down through the generations.

The America we know is the sponsor of hegemony, the architect of destruction, and the partner of the occupation in every crime committed on our land. Its history with us is a long series of deceptions. It is not an ally, but an adversary skilled at concealment, speaking the language of the law, and practicing the law of the jungle.

America not only betrayed its rhetoric with us, but it also betrayed its values. From the Nakba to the Naksa, from the occupation of Beirut to the destruction of Baghdad, from the siege of Gaza to the dismantling of Yemen, Syria, and Libya... America was either running the game, supplying the players with the tools of killing, or providing them political cover in international forums. Since that day, nothing has changed, except the masks.

What is happening today in Gaza is the height of this American hypocrisy. Instead of applying real pressure to stop the massacres, Washington resorted to a blatant political trick, and here it is doing it again, through what is now known as the “Witkoff proposal” for a ceasefire in Gaza. This proposal is in reality nothing more than the proposal of Netanyahu’s closest advisor, Ron Dermer. It presented two different proposals to stop the aggression, one for Hamas and the other for Tel Aviv. Each party either agreed, or at least expressed its willingness to agree, even if it was with some reservations. We later discovered that there is a huge difference between them, that it is full of traps, and that America was not seeking a solution, but was buying additional time for the killing machine to complete its mission. This is not mediation, but rather bias described by all standards.

Most dangerous of all, it is using this booby-trapped initiative as a pretext to freeze international efforts aimed at halting the aggression or holding the occupation accountable. We find it exerting pressure on the Europeans to curb potential sanctions or even condemnations, under the pretext that any current escalation - even if diplomatic - could hinder "ceasefire efforts." However, the truth is that America does not want to stop the aggression. Rather, it wants to finish the mission first, and then provide the occupation with political cover for an "honorable" exit, stripping any international action of its effective tools by pinning hope on an initiative that is empty of content.

America, which demands "balanced positions," in reality wants positions that equate a nuclear state that occupies and kills a people for no more than six hundred days with a defenseless people being slaughtered, starved, and expelled from their land. In doing so, it wants to equate the sword with blood. This is the simplest definition of political impudence: to dress up a crime in the guise of neutrality and present the criminal as a partner in the solution.

In all fairness, these are not miscalculations or diplomatic failures. This is a consistent approach in American policy: killing time when people are being killed, buying the world's silence when massacres are being committed, and rewarding the colonizer for every crime. This is the America we know, and it is time for us to stop dealing with it as a mediator or sponsor of a lost peace. Every bet on America is a bet on an illusion. Whoever wants freedom does not ask for it from their jailer, and whoever seeks justice does not expect it from the killer's partner. America has never been part of the solution; rather, it is the origin of the problem, its engine, and the guarantor of its continuity. Therefore, the moment has come to sever the psychological and political connection with this fake ally. The America we know is the America that is killing us slowly, in the name of the law, and with a diplomatic smile!