Arab Spring and the Israeli enemy

[Solomon2]

Saturday, 6 October 2012 | Dhulka'edah 20, 1433

Arab Spring and the Israeli enemy

ABDULATEEF AL-MULHIM

Saturday 6 October 2012 Last Update 6 October 2012 2:53 am

Thirty-nine years ago, on Oct. 6, 1973, the third major war between the Arabs and Israel broke out. The war lasted only 20 days. The two sides were engaged in two other major wars, in 1948 and 1967.

The 1967 War lasted only six days. But, these three wars were not the only Arab-Israel confrontations. From the period of 1948 and to this day many confrontations have taken place. Some of them were small clashes and many of them were full-scale battles, but there were no major wars apart from the ones mentioned above. The Arab-Israeli conflict is the most complicated conflict the world ever experienced. On the anniversary of the 1973 War between the Arab and the Israelis, many people in the Arab world are beginning to ask many questions about the past, present and the future with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The questions now are: What was the real cost of these wars to the Arab world and its people. And the harder question that no Arab national wants to ask is: What was the real cost for not recognizing Israel in 1948 and why didn’t the Arab states spend their assets on education, health care and the infrastructures instead of wars? But, the hardest question that no Arab national wants to hear is whether Israel is the real enemy of the Arab world and the Arab people.

I decided to write this article after I saw photos and reports about a starving child in Yemen, a burned ancient Aleppo souk in Syria, the under developed Sinai in Egypt, car bombs in Iraq and the destroyed buildings in Libya. The photos and the reports were shown on the Al-Arabiya network, which is the most watched and respected news outlet in the Middle East.

The common thing among all what I saw is that the destruction and the atrocities are not done by an outside enemy. The starvation, the killings and the destruction in these Arab countries are done by the same hands that are supposed to protect and build the unity of these countries and safeguard the people of these countries. So, the question now is that who is the real enemy of the Arab world?

The Arab world wasted hundreds of billions of dollars and lost tens of thousands of innocent lives fighting Israel, which they considered is their sworn enemy, an enemy whose existence they never recognized. The Arab world has many enemies and Israel should have been at the bottom of the list. The real enemies of the Arab world are corruption, lack of good education, lack of good health care, lack of freedom, lack of respect for the human lives and finally, the Arab world had many dictators who used the Arab-Israeli conflict to suppress their own people.

These dictators’ atrocities against their own people are far worse than all the full-scale Arab-Israeli wars. In the past, we have talked about why some Israeli soldiers attack and mistreat Palestinians. Also, we saw Israeli planes and tanks attack various Arab countries. But, do these attacks match the current atrocities being committed by some Arab states against their own people.

In Syria, the atrocities are beyond anybody’s imaginations? And, isn’t the Iraqis are the ones who are destroying their own country? Wasn’t it Tunisia’s dictator who was able to steal 13 billion dollars from the poor Tunisians? And how can a child starve in Yemen if their land is the most fertile land in the world? Why would Iraqi brains leave Iraq in a country that makes 110 billion dollars from oil export? Why do the Lebanese fail to govern one of the tiniest countries in the world? And what made the Arab states start sinking into chaos?

On May 14, 1948 the state of Israel was declared. And just one day after that, on May 15, 1948 the Arabs declared war on Israel to get back Palestine. The war ended on March 10, 1949. It lasted for nine months, three weeks and two days. The Arabs lost the war and called this war Nakbah (catastrophic war). The Arabs gained nothing and thousands of Palestinians became refugees.

And on 1967, the Arabs led by Egypt under the rule of Gamal Abdul Nasser, went in war with Israel and lost more Palestinian land and made more Palestinian refugees who are now on the mercy of the countries that host them. The Arabs called this war Naksah (upset). The Arabs never admitted defeat in both wars and the Palestinian cause got more complicated. And now, with the never ending Arab Spring, the Arab world has no time for the Palestinians refugees or Palestinian cause, because many Arabs are refugees themselves and under constant attacks from their own forces. Syrians are leaving their own country, not because of the Israeli planes dropping bombs on them. It is the Syrian Air Force which is dropping the bombs. And now, Iraqi Arab Muslims, most intelligent brains, are leaving Iraq for the est. In Yemen, the world’s saddest human tragedy play is being written by the Yemenis. In Egypt, the people in Sinai are forgotten.

Finally, if many of the Arab states are in such disarray, then what happened to the Arabs’ sworn enemy (Israel)? Israel now has the most advanced research facilities, top universities and advanced infrastructure. Many Arabs don’t know that the life expectancy of the Palestinians living in Israel is far longer than many Arab states and they enjoy far better political and social freedom than many of their Arab brothers. Even the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip enjoy more political and social rights than some places in the Arab World. Wasn’t one of the judges who sent a former Israeli president to jail is an Israeli-Palestinian?

The Arab Spring showed the world that the Palestinians are happier and in better situation than their Arab brothers who fought to liberate them from the Israelis. Now, it is time to stop the hatred and wars and start to create better living conditions for the future Arab generations.


— This article is exclusive to Arab News.
almulhimnavy@hotmail.com

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Unfortunately, he is right. However, do you know who was the first and only Arab leader who called for the lines colored in red in your post? He was king Abdullah The First, he called for that because he knew Arabs real capability at the time, they were newly independent and some were under Western mandates, he knew that we were not going to win anything with such backwardness, weakness and misery. However, he paid a dear price for telling the truth, he was called traitor, villain...etc, and later was assassinated.

Israel is a sworn enemy but I agree that it's at the bottom of the list of Arabs enemies. I always say that the best way to weaken our enemies is to invest in our economies, education, infrastructure, scientific research ...ect , which would make us stronger and stronger which definitely is in interest of Palestinian cause, I wonder what if Arab nations were like UAE...

 

[Solomon2]

Unfortunately, he is right. However, do you know who was the first and only Arab leader who called for the lines colored in red in your post? He was king Abdullah The First, he called for that because he knew Arabs real capability at the time -

Abdullah's idea was to take the Jews under his "protection" - a return, in short, to the old Jews-pay-protection-money-to-thugs-who-then-use-the-money-to-pay-for-conquest game. Doubtless such "protection" would have ended the moment the Hashemites won back Arabia.

You've misinterpreted the commodore's column, Blackeagle. It's nothing less than questioning whether Arabs should still be opposing the Jewish State since Israel has become a good thing and a model in and of itself - or at least better than what most of the Arab States have to offer.

Israel is a sworn enemy but I agree that it's at the bottom of the list of Arabs enemies.

When Arabs like you start thinking like this Arab despots start thinking of ways to trigger new wars between Arabs and Jews. When another fire breaks out will the Jews move to the top of your list again or will you demand accountability from your leaders?

 

[Solomon2]

I think you'll be especially interested in this article, Blackeagle. It's all about the stuff that keeps Arabs in chains - and makes clear the chains are donned willingly.

Arabs upset at latest alleged UNRWA plan to teach the Holocaust

Tuesday, October 16

In 2009, Arab media exploded with the rumor that UNRWA schools planned to teach about the Holocaust to Palestinian Arab kids in Gaza.

The UN had to issue a strenuous denial that they would even consider such a thing. One Arab newspaper even quoted the UNRWA head as saying he was totally against it, a quote that UNRWA later denied.

Soon afterwards, UNRWA announced that it would indeed incorporate the Holocaust into its curriculum on universal human rights, but there is no evidence that it ever did so.

Now, the same rumor is hitting Jordan.

Al-Ghad reports

UNRWA will return to teaching the so-called Holocaust in the context of material enrichment, after freezing it for a while, despite its denials of it.

Informed sources in the UNRWA/Jordan teachers committee said that a decision with the agency to teach enrichment material about the Holocaust, after previously being forced to freeze work on the topic, as a result of the overwhelming uproar against it.

Sources added to al-Ghad that "UNRWA is seeking to exploit the preoccupation with current internal situation, in addition to the uncertain atmosphere in the region, in order to teach suspicious topics that harm the Palestinian cause."

Introduced in this framework would be materials that discuss resolving conflicts and crises, and resolving conflict peacefully, and to cite the so-called plight of Jews and victims of Nazism and their right to live in peace.

A statement issued yesterday by the Executive Committee of Teachers of UNRWA in Jordan expressed "outrage and condemnation of this decision, which conflates the executioner and victim, and urged "the teaching of private Palestinian cause, especially the right of return of refugees to their homes and lands that have been displaced them due to the Zionist aggression in 1948."

For its part, UNRWA's management denied any plans to "to teach about the Holocaust in its enrichment activities, saying its commitment is to the educational curriculum of the host countries, and it has no intention to change it.​

Jordanian teachers know that the topic of teaching Arabs something that could make Jews appear as anything less than bloodthirsty monsters is an easy way to create a huge backlash in their "moderate" country. It isn't only that the teachers are anti-semitic, but they know that everyone in Jordan would agree that Holocaust education is a terrible topic to inflict on their children.

If that isn't anti-semitism, I don't know what is.

Meanwhile, UNRWA never answered my questions about their curriculum and school material that teach about jihad and martyrdom, in Gaza. These materials directly contradict UNRWA's official educational vision in that they glorify violence.

Apparently teaching Jihad is OK while teaching that millions of Jews were killed 70 years ago is strictly out of bounds for this progressive, Western-funded UN agency.