Unified Arab stance: a red herring of the highest order
Comment on editorial titled “The Price of Egypt’s Silence on Gaza (published Jan. 3, 2009). It is becoming a bit ridiculous for people to keep lamenting the lack of a unified Arab stance in response to things like Israel’s recent attacks on Gaza.
The simple fact is that the ‘Arab’ factor of most Middle East states is only one axis of identity in those states, and not a strong enough one to consolidate a unified bloc. Nor should race, ethnicity, or language be the most powerful unifier of a political bloc. Ms. Malky laments the “divisions which always cripple a unified Arab stance without interrogating the relevance or sincerity of such a stance, if it were to come about.
The mostly Arab states of the Middle East represent vastly diverse economic, religious, and political realities, and the animosity that exists between them is as strong as the animosity that exists between the broader population of Arabic people and the state of Israel. Animosity toward Israel is, for many Middle East citizens, religiously and ideologically motivated, not the result of experience i.e. Arabs in the abstract hate Israelis because their culture tells them to, even while their own governments and their own Arab neighbors are presenting far greater hurdles to development and personal freedom than the Israelis ever have, or ever intend to. Why can’t anyone realize that?
I am reminded of the outrage in the Muslim world over the cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. Millions took to the streets, and the Muslim world – if not the Arab world exclusively – seemed to speak with one voice. But when it comes to brutal repression and economic stagnation resulting from corruption on an obscene scale in places like Egypt, the Arab world has little to say. Pick your battles, and stop looking for unity where it has never really existed, and never will.
Hamas made a major mistake
Comment on editorial titled “The Price of Egypt’s Silence on Gaza (published Jan. 3, 2009). Hamas made a major error by refusing to extend the truce. Hamas cannot have it both ways: refuse to recognize Israel and refuse extending a truce. Egypt did the responsible thing by trying its best to convince Hamas of reason. Hamas was blind. For some reason, these maximalist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah and others have a habit of ignoring reason. They think they can change the world by offering more innocents to die for the only cause that their leaders hunkering down in bunkers remain in power.
No democracy in the Arab world
Comment on Decoding Egypt column titled “Egypt’s Pathetic Foreign Policy (published Jan. 1, 2009). Arab leaders will do anything to hold on to power. There is no democracy in any Arab countries. They will kiss up to Americans just to hold on to power for more than 30 years or more. Their days are numbered unless they come together and have some shame and save their own people. Stop blaming others. Arab leaders have nobody to blame but themselves. They are always lashing out at each other instead of working for a common cause. I just wish you all the best because I am personally tired of fighting, arguing on behalf of Arabs and they are giving oil to those who use the same oil to murder more Arabs. Good Luck.
Israel has a right to react, but.
Comment on another online comment on editorial “The Assault on Gaza (published Jan. 1, 2009) titled “Rania, how naïve can you be?
I am not disputing Israel’s right to react even though I don’t think this would be a popular opinion with the majority of people visiting this site. Any country has the right to respond to direct threats on its citizens however, it is also the responsibility of the stronger party to respond in a proportionate manner.
Like I said before, Israel is not fighting a standing army, it is fighting a militia with no real physical structure. You cannot go in and bomb a university which is attended by thousands of students studying all disciplines because Hamas is preaching their ideology in one of its lecture halls. You cannot call the residents of an apartment building and tell them to vacate the premises one hour before bombing it just because a Hamas leader lives in one of the apartments (even though he might not be there at the time).
Quoting Gazan citizens who were calling a popular TV show last night, they were saying that no Hamas figures were to be seen after the bombing started and that this campaign has evolved from targeting Hamas operatives to targeting the ‘symbols’ of Hamas. When all these matters are seen through Arab (and some international) eyes, one cannot help but think that if Israel was not deliberately targeting civilians then at least it carries out its attacks with the minimum of regard for human life.
My point is that the response is greatly disproportionate and in the end it will not achieve anything. It will not eliminate or weaken Hamas, as a matter of fact it might even make it stronger just as the Israeli campaign did in 2006 against Hezbollah which today holds a significant position in Lebanese politics, to the discontent of a number of regional players.
In my view that is a much worse outcome because if Hamas proves that it can survive Israel then what is to stop it from staging a coup in the West Bank as well and then by next year we would have another part of the Palestinian population living under siege there and Hamas operatives launching missiles directly at Tel Aviv.
Going back again to the idea of intent to kill civilians. Before I explain this I have to say that this is not my view and I can also assume that the majority of Arabs share my point of view. Hamas launches its rockets with the intent to terrorize. If civilians are killed then the usual justifications they present are that all Israeli civilians are reservists in the IDF and are therefore soldiers on extended civilian leave. The other justification is that the IDF attacks civilian populations in Gaza without any regard for human life so why should we care?
It’s a devastating fact but it is the truth. Now although they are formed around a core of religious values, they seem to have forgotten what the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) taught his armies about conduct in times of war: “Do not kill an old man, a child or a woman and do not commit treachery. Hamas’ actions bear the hallmark signs of extremism but then again what do you expect from a group of people who are living under such terrible siege conditions and under the constant threats of assassination and military incursions?
Again I am not justifying extremism, I am only saying that it is the natural outcome of what these people have been subjected to. You might reply by saying that this has been Hamas’ policy for years and that they have always called for the annihilation of Israel and again you would be correct. However you would be missing the point that these people have also said that they would agree to a complete halt of any form of violence against Israel if the Israelis agreed to stop the violence against them.
The problem is that these statements do not reach the European and American public because it is in Israel’s best interests that Hamas be portrayed as bloodthirsty terrorists who love killing innocent civilians, otherwise Israel would lose its political support from those countries.
