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.

A Syrian flag in Beirut

With very little celebration, late at night a Syrian flag is raised on top of a building downtown Beirut starting a new era. Quite an achievement for the separatists, as for the first time in over 30 years there were happy to see a Syrian flag flying high in the heart of Beirut. I did not feel the Syrian occupation to Lebanon nor I can speak for those who had to take the heat of 30 years of military presence in their homes and neighborhoods but I am still can't draw a smile on my face celebrating the separation of the true twins as a.

I still can not tell the difference between a Syrian and Lebanese, not that many people can. It is true that Syrians don't have many French names of themselves and their buildings, but I do not believe that French names made Lebanon more "Lebanese".

Fifty years of closed politics in Syria made Syrians less aware of the world around them but it never made them strangers in Lebanon. Lebanon has always been the voice of the muted Syrians, the place for us to express our anger, romance, rights, and ideas. Lebanese are proud of Nizar and Majida Roumi. Majida's father came from Jerusalem, lived in Damascus, then moved to Lebanon.

The creation of the Arabism and Syrianism ideas came from the small villages of Mount Lebanon. St Maroun (Mar Maroun) who gave the Chtistian of Lebanon the Maronite Church came from Homs and died in Aleppo, I don't think he would be happy to see his followers condemning his birth and death places.

This flag is not like any flag. this flag means to me that I have to feel a stranger in Lebanon, and I just can not feel that. Will I be able to adapt? Will I accept to stand in line one day so i can obtain a visa to see Kesserwan,or will I be cool to request a special permission to walk around the citadel of Tyr? This day may be coming but I will never be prepared for it.

How can you separate twins?

Growing up I learned that everything is possible and what is reality today can easily become an illusion tomorrow. Talking to my best Serbian friend, I realized that it is always the same story. Religion: this great belief that pulls people of the same faith so close together separating them from their own selves. How else can I understand what separate Lebanon from Syria? or Kosovo from Serbia or Serbian Bosnia from Bosnia...

Listening to Lebanese today talking about how sad it is to divide their country into cantons follow different parties or cults reminded me how sad I feel that they chose to divide our Syria into smaller divisions.

So many questions are lining up in my head I can hardly find answers for. A history of division, embraced always by hollow slogans calling for liberty, independence, and deciding destiny. Trying to find answers to my questions, I researched history. I am not a historian nor I claim to be, However I know for a fact that we have the same race, same history, same languages over the centuries, and same lifespan, So how were we separated?

It was for sure a very lengthy operation, best surgeons of France, Britain, and more recently the United States worked on it. Local advisers and assistants were essential for the process to succeed, ironically there were always tons of them ready to help.

They grew the twins apart, giving more wealth to younger brother and spoiling him with all the gimmicks to convince him that the older brother is the past to be ashamed of and the loony in a pond of mud.

Today I am sad to announce that the operation was successful. But it still huts, and it will still hurt until the end of time. Because through the process they had to divide the heart of every true Syrian in 4 and I am afraid that the future is bleak and the only light I see is the explosion that will break my Syria into more pieces.

I love you Syria, and i will always believe in you.