Israel is an Arab-loving state with ties to several Arab countries like Egypt and Jordan with which it has forged peace agreements. It’s also hoping to reach similar agreements with the rest of the Arab states. It uprooted Palestinian Arabs from their land, and evicted them from their homes only out of love for them and for their land.
Indeed ever since Israel rose from the ashes of the Palestinian State which has been wiped off the map, it has been declaring that it wants to live in peace not only with the people whose land it has ravished, but with all Arabs, even those whose land is too far to ravish as was the case with land it has invaded in Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon.
And because of its love for Arabs and in its concerted effort to reach peace with them, Israel stands fast against any Arab in international events. After its attack on Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, Egypt’s candidate for the post of Director General of UNESCO and lobbying against his nomination out of fear for the rest of the UNESCO’s 192 members from Hosni who presumably sets fire to any book in sight, it has now started another campaign against Arab League membership to the Union for the Mediterranean.
The logic behind this campaign is based on the idea that the Arab League has always been antagonistic to Israel and hence should not be rewarded with membership into the new union as if one of the conditions of being admitted into international organizations is loving Israel and not being in enmity with it.
After pressure from France and other European countries, Israel reluctantly agreed to merely give the Arab League a monitoring role in the union. And because Israel loves Arabs, – as we said – and wants to co-exist peacefully with them it has agreed to allow the Arab League delegate to audit all sessions but without uttering a single word, expressing an opinion, or voting on any decision, all despite the fact that the Arab League as a Mediterranean organization predates this new union and the state of Israel itself.
In its eternal love for everything Arab, Israel has found support in the United States and hence in the US-allied members of the Union for the Mediterranean, especially in the countries of the former Eastern Bloc whose membership in this union continues to be a mystery to me. Some of these countries aren’t even Mediterranean countries because they don’t overlook the Mediterranean sea, not even from a distant window, like that of Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin, who, when accused of lacking foreign policy experience defended herself by saying that she can see Russia from the window of her house in Alaska.
This came days after another expression of Israel’s overriding love for Arabs at the Frankfurt Book Fair which ended a few days ago. The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which specializes in blackmailing those who don’t share Israel’s love for Arabs by branding them as anti-Semites and has attacked Arab participants in the fair claiming that their wings house books for which they can be held legally accountable because they are anti-Semitic. They have even called on the organizers of the Frankfurt Book Fair and other international cultural organizations to disqualify all Arabs from joining similar cultural gatherings all over the world.
This latest incident reminds me of a similar one also instigated by the same ill-reputed organization which leveled the same accusation against Egypt when it was chosen as the guest of honor in the Geneva International Book Fair. Back then they made up book titles and authors’ names and accused them of harboring enmity towards Semites, the very same race to which we Arabs belong. Their black-listed authors included fictitious names like Abdel Hamid El Masry, who doesn’t exist.
All this must encourage us Arabs to change our stance towards Israel and admit that Israel is an Arab-loving state which seeks peace in all possible ways. This should also drive us to reciprocate this passionate love that Israel has for Arabs with a love that is no less passionate.
Mohamed Salmawyis President of the Arab Writers’ Union and Editor-in-Chief of Al-Ahram Hebdo.
