Human history is replete with the blood and memory of lions roaming unchecked – majestic, merciless and uncontested. They roared across valleys, rivers and deserts, tearing lives apart, scattering lambs in silence. The truth has always been cruel: lions eat lambs, never the other way around.
A friend reminded me of this as we debated President Trump’s so-called “peace plan” for Israel and Palestine. “The lamb must accept its fate,” he shrugged, “or run until it collapses.” This is the logic of history written by the powerful: borders drawn by the conquerors, lives dictated by the victors and the weak forced to adapt.
But does that always have to be the story? Are lambs only meant to run, scatter and bleed? Or will they, one day, be able to learn not just to survive, but to rewrite history? Trump’s plan revealed itself as a gilded cage, shiny bars disguised as prosperity, but a cage nonetheless.
The Palestinians were promised fragments of sovereignty, a homeland fragmented into isolated pieces, governed like a colony under perpetual surveillance. The price? Their grief silenced, their dispossession erased, their history swallowed up.
Palestine is not just a land; it is an ancient olive tree, with roots deeply anchored in time, nourished by prophets and poets, soaked in rain and blood. Bulldozers may threaten it, flames may burn its branches, but it always remains standing. For centuries, conquerors have succeeded one another, but the olive tree endures.
From its branches hang the tenacious hopes of a people destined to disappear quietly. They refused – not with roaring force, but with the silent defiance of their roots that refuse to let go.
Doves of peace have already flown over this earth. Too often they have been felled by the occupation, by rocket fire, by revenge disguised as security. And yet, in the rubble of Gaza, a child paints a bird on a broken wall. In the streets of Jerusalem, a grandmother whispers to her grandson the names of villages erased from maps.
In the refugee camps, young boys armed with slingshots still believe that one day the dove will be resurrected, if only with the sky. They do not ask for conquest, only return. Not domination, but dignity.
And therein lies the tragedy: Israel, born from the ashes of persecution, has now become the persecutor. A people who once suffered from exile, ghettos and genocide, are now not only imposing exile, walls and sieges on others, but are committing a genocide that the world is watching live. Leaders may be silent spectators – many even collaborating – but the collective conscience of the world’s people has awakened.
Today, Israel is one of the most reviled nations in the world. Is this really the legacy Netanyahu wants to leave? A country still at war, despised on a global scale and condemned by history?
Wisdom would advise otherwise. Israel could still choose to accept a just and lasting peace – recognized by the world and, above all, by the Palestinians themselves.
Because which is better: illegally expanding a few more kilometers, usurping a little more land and, in doing so, condemning future generations of Israelis to endless war, or ensuring a peace that lasts, a peace that heals? The answer would be obvious, if only wisdom were stronger than arrogance.
The United States, too, must ask itself what legacy it seeks. Forever funding the occupation and war crimes, even ignoring the decision of the International Court of Justice which declared Israel’s actions genocide? Or finally read the writing on the wall: a change in international opinion, a change in national mood, even within America itself? It’s easy to be on the wrong side of history, but changing course takes courage. But history rewards the latter, not the former.
And what about the Muslim Ummah? What about its leaders? Were they really naive enough not to notice the duplicity inherent in this so-called agreement? Or did they just accept the crumbs thrown at them? A handshake at the White House, a reception on the red carpet, a fleeting photo with an American president: was it worth the betrayal of Palestine? Too many have rejoiced in this temporary glow, blind to the long shadow it cast over their own honor.
History has always associated the scroll with the sword. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) rejected bribery from Meccan elites, choosing exile and hardship over compromise. He returned not with vengeance, but with mercy and justice. Jesus Christ overturned the table of profiteers, challenging the empire not with armies but with sacrifices.
Throughout the ages, the oppressed have responded with dignity, even when crushed. Mandela against apartheid. Gandhi against the British Empire. Jinnah’s Muslims against the colonial regime. Martin Luther King Jr against American racism. All stood where the Palestinians are today: on the side of justice, their only weapon of perseverance.
The lesson is clear: peace without justice is not peace at all. It is submission disguised as compromise. It is silence bought at the price of dignity. Forced agreements will only sow the seeds of deeper hatred and longer wars. If Israel truly seeks peace, it must meet the Palestinians as equals. If America truly seeks peace, it must abandon its blind loyalty to injustice. And if Muslim leaders truly care about their people, they need to stop trading Palestine for photo opportunities. Palestinians are not asking for thrones, only trees. Not empires, but houses. Not crowns, but dignity.
Yes, lions devour lambs. But every empire, no matter how powerful, eventually collapses. Every unjust peace eventually collapses. And even the weakest voices echo through the centuries until they are heard.
The story is not yet over. The ink has not dried. And maybe, just maybe, this time the lamb learned to write.
The writer is the editor-in-chief of PK Press Club News.
Originally published in The News
