Criminals vs cowards

[ProgressiveMuslim]

The current uproar in Arab streets might not be of any direct help to Gazans but it draws battle lines between the masses and their regimes, notes Sherine Bahaa

(snip)

Arab popular demands sound simple: opening the border with Egypt to relieve the siege; closing the embassy; expelling the ambassador; and withdrawing the generous 2002 Saudi peace initiative agreed by the Arab League. But they are all but impossible given the present political alignment, and they fall on deaf ears.

It appears nothing will really change. The pro-US Arab regimes will continue to play the role of loyal allies, and the "radical extremist regimes" as the West refers to Syria and its non-Arab ally Iran will score more points for their continuing support of resistance groups. In short, Hizbullah and Hamas will be symbols of dignity and victory in the Arab world.

Not long ago, in 2006, during the Israeli- Hizbullah war, the moderate regimes initially hoped that the conflict would damage Hizbullah, but soon changed tack when the Israeli army failed to deliver a quick victory and Hizbullah proved it could survive.

This week, pan-Arab satellite channels have been broadcasting nearly non-stop images of bloodied Palestinian bodies, ambulances screaming and women wailing in hospital corridors. But US President George Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice justified Israel's slaughter with the usual mantra that Israel has the right to "retaliate and defend itself".

"Our intention is to totally change the rules of the game," Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said. According to Barak, "the game" is the whole Arab-Israeli conflict, but "the score" was much higher than he actually anticipated before launching the current attack.

It was 40 years ago, on 28 December 1968, that Israeli commandos raided Beirut airport and destroyed 13 Lebanese civilian aircraft, in retaliation for a Palestinian attack against an Israeli airliner in Athens. Israel aimed to inflict a revenge so severe to shock the Arabs into preventing the Palestinians from fighting Israel.

Today, 40 years and numerous attacks and wars later, Israel is again using massive retaliatory and punitive force to cow the Palestinians of Gaza into submission.

Arabs, and above all Palestinians, knew by grim experience that the death of one Israeli citizen justifies the indiscriminate murder of a hundred Palestinians. "This is an attempt to uproot the Palestinian resistance like what they tried to do in 2006 with Hizbullah," said Hizbullah representative Hussein Rahal in Beirut.

But this is harder said than done. The Arab and Muslim communities cannot be judged this way. "These are communities that cherish their martyrs; where violent death reinforces social cohesion and unity," said an Arab analyst.

"What has happened in the past few hours is simply an expression of what has been going on for days and months and years: the death and fear that Gaza's gunmen and rocket teams and bombers have inflicted upon Israel have been returned 10, 20, 30 times over once again," the analyst added.

Israel's crimes against the Palestinians provide the rallying point to vent anger not only against Zionist atrocities but against what the public widely call "the collaboration of their regimes" with their supreme foe for already two generations, a rogue state which opponents rightly dismiss as "the Zionist entity".

According to one Israeli commentator in Haaretz, judging by Arab leaders' statements and slogans shouted by demonstrators in several Arab capitals, one might have thought that Egypt, not Israel, was the one waging war on Gaza.

But to be fair, it is not only Egypt but all Arab regimes that are being condemned by the Arabs.

"This is something to be ranked with Deir Yassin. With the Sabra and Shatila massacres," the Arab analyst quoted above reiterated.


read on...
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/928/re42.htm

[cali]

1. Articles like this one certainly reflect some realities;

that the ruthless attack on Gaza will create greater anger in the Arab and that parts of the Arab world are entrenched in their view that Israel is not and never will be, considered legitimate.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

2. The piece isn't about Israel per se, but rather about the disconnect between

the populace and the leadership.

One could make the case that the populace is correct in concluding that Israel has no intention of making peace, given its history of going occupation and colonization.

"Legitimacy" isn't the issue at all.

[pelsar]

3. or...the arabs leaders realize the real problem...hamas

knowing full well that hamas, a facist autocratic theocratic regime, like iran, has every intention of taking over the more moderate regimes one revolution at a time....shari law, as in what hamas has now introduced in to gaza, is not going to 'go away" just by wishing it....

and its threat is not only far greater than israel, but it will make matters far worse not just for the Palestinians, but the arabs in general....welcome to my world of limited options none of them good nor simple.

shari law as in the way iran/taliban practice: stoning people, hanging homosexuals, limited schooling, if any for women, etc etc etc.....

[ProgressiveMuslim]

6. It's the crux. The problem is when "moderate regimes" are corrupt puppets of the west.

You think we would have learned after the Shah.

[oberliner]

4. There were no casualties in the Israeli raid on the Beirut airport in 1968

That was not the case during the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacking of the El Al flight that preceded it.

[Vegasaurus]

5. That In short, "Hizbullah and Hamas will be symbols of dignity and victory in the Arab world."

shows the level of true depavity.

Misery to millions is a symbol of dignity?

That's just sick in the head.

[bemildred]

7. Well, I reckon they are "changing the dynamic" all right.

Probably not in the way intended though.

[Igel]

8. Power changes attitudes.

I know from experience that when you are powerless, you can advocate and agitate for things based on idealism and ideology. You bear no responsibility if it all goes wrong when they meet your demands, and feel responsibility for allowing things to go on unchanged if you don't make the demands. Often you don't actually consider implementation or costs, because, well, it doesn't matter: You have your goal, and it's narrow.

Once you have power, however, you look at things differently. When things go wrong, you can't blame others' bad implementation. You have to count the cost, you have to weigh struggling for that goal against struggling for other goals. When things don't work out, or go bad, it's your neck. It makes you more cautious.

Hamas was torn by this when they achieved power, and they were stuck: Many considered the narrow goals worthy of implementation, regardless of cost. Others decided that they needed to modify the goals, at least short term to reach more pressing solutions. Ultimately, enough of them consider their goals and their dignity to be worth the price: They are honor-killing their country before its born. They are in power, but either overestimate their resources, or don't care about the outcome because they figure either they can't lose, or losing is bad than not fighting.

[bridgit]

9. The Arab League is a joke, too busy counting their petro-dollars and playing...

with their falcons to really care