So what's new really?
1978,- 28year old Bi-Bi is interviewed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lixYEZ9M_dU&feature=related
2012: America and Israel with only 7 others voted against this Resolution, while Australia and 40 others abstained. The front page of the Australian Jewish News screamed" YOU'VE LET US DOWN" over the photo of our Foreign Minister. The PM Julia Gillard wanted to vote with Israel and the US, but she was 'rolled' by her Labor Party coleagues who wanted to appear more 'neutral' now that they have secured a temporary seat on the Security Council.
I have sent a letter to the Jewish News because I don't like histerics every time some of our leaders or the newspapers, or some cartoonists are against Israel, taking the Palestinian side.
I think our community is mature enough to be able to take these knockbacks now and again, while putting forward valid arguments why they may be wrong!
There is such a thing as "thou protesteth too much" sometimes and in our lucky country we should be thankful that it is only 'now and again'!
If there is a State established which is at war with Israel, then Israel is entitled to occupy whatever territory it has won in all the wars, until a peace treaty is in place. They, the Arabs went to war when Israel was established, now let them wait to 'free their occupied lands' on the West Bank until all signs of belligerence will cease. The Gaza experience did not lead to anything other than more hostility.
The article below by this brave Saudi commentator is the most 'normal' analysis and overview about the Arabs' relations vis-a-vis their own people versus their "enemy Israel". I wish the West would wake up like he did and stop dancing to the Arabs' tune and realize where it is leading them and all of us further into the future as a result of giving in to bullies!
MM
Abdulateef Al Mulhim is retired from the Royal Saudi Navy at the rank of
Commodore and writes regularly for Arab News..
Sunday, 7 October 2012 | Dhulka'edah 21, 1433
Arab Spring and the Israeli enemy
By ABDULATEEF AL-MULHIM
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
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