In the name of Palestine !!!

The Arab media as thirsty as it always has been to deliver messages after Israel’s bombardment to Gaza announcing the killing of over 300 Palestinians. Another implication to pressure the Arab street to declare once again Hamas is the Arab world hero and Israel is the devil incarnated. A declaration every one of us "Arabs" should make or else we are not Arabs enough, we are not Muslim enough. A message that was delivered many times before, to mute voices that call for a change and line them up with traitors siding with the enemy in the time of war.

Last Sunday, a biker blew himself up in the middle of an anti-Israel demonstration in the Iraqi city of Mosul. The technique blessed by almost everyone around the Arab countries as a weapon against Israel was used against Arabs protesting Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. A paradox that can never be explained. That twisted and morbid full circle completed on the streets of Mosul can be captured only by paraphrasing Karl Marx - Israel is the opium of the people: the Arab people. What else explains the ridiculously short memory of the Middleast?

Tzipi Livni has just forgotten her stand from Ehud Olmert's handling of Israel’s 2006 war on Lebanon and launches under very similar circumstances her bombardment of Gaza.

Israel is making more heroes of Hamas the same way it made of Hizbollah? This has been the first achievement from the blockade of Gaza backed by the suffering of civilians whose Hamas leaders may care for as little as Israel?

Hassan Nasrallah the leader of Hizbolla has forgotten that while he rails against Egypt for aiding the blockade of Gaza, the proud Lebanese lives in a country where generations of Palestinian refugees live in camps that serve as more as concentration jails with limited access to basic needs.

The demonstrators in Jordan and Lebanon have obviously forgotten the thousands of Palestinians were killed in 1970 in Jordan as it tried to control there leaders in the country, forcing the Palestine Liberation Army into Lebanon where in 1982, the Phalangists, Christian Lebanese militiamen, slaughtered 3000 Palestinians under the spotlights provided by the Israeli army in the Sabra and Shatila camps.

Not a single Phalangist has been held accountable for that massacre. An Israeli state inquiry in 1983 found Ariel Sharon, then defense minister, indirectly responsible for the killings at the refugee camps during Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. But don’t hold your breath for an Arab inquiry of any sort or kind so we never sacrifice our national unity. It is Israel that gives sense to our victimization. The horrors we visit upon each other are irrelevant and very easily wiped out off the pages of our history.

It is difficult to criticize Palestinians when so many have died or exiled, tortured or jailed, but the Hamas rulers of Gaza have failed them just like Fateh did before. For those of us who long to separate religion from politics, Hamas has a blunt answer to us that we never make their list. The Palestinians everywhere are victims equally of their leaders and Israel. Where was the anger when two Palestinian schoolgirls were killed in Gaza when Hamas rockets meant for Israel misfired, just a day before Israel’s bombardment? or all Hamas mistakes are bound to be forgiven?

My question to all the Arabs incensed at Israel is where is their anger at the human rights violations, torture, and oppression in their respective countries? At least Israel is opening its borders for some human aids that Arab leaders refuse to provide to their prisoners.

It is a simple equation !!! Sixty years of continuous wars and violence brought nothing but more suffering to Palestinians and their Arab neighbors. We honor the dead by awakening our nation from its chronic amnesia. We must break through to the taboos and continue to uncover the reality about our present.

As Arabs we need to focus on internal issues in each Arab state in our little communities and ignore the opium that we created and called Israel. Enough with pointing fingers at Israel as the reason for every failed attempt to build our countries and our nation. Let'
s give up playing the victim role. The world does not care about us if we do not take care of ourselves and eachother.

Palestinians still have no state. they did not have it before, Arabs never allowed it and so does Israel now. What a shame it would be for one Arab state after the other to hail and fail in the name of Palestine.