Focus (Opinion) Of the Week - Issue 41

41 - October 8, 2001 thru 14 October, 2001, Vol XI

The Changing Winds Scare Ariel Sharon

COMMON SENSE
By: Hassan Al-Haifi
For a seemingly tough guy, Ariel Sharon stopped hiding behind his gung-ho Zionist advisors to speak his mind about what the West should do and not do and to assure them that Israel is not going to take any "change of western attitude" lightly. We are not sure if that was a threat or a desire to come out in the limelight again after being overshadowed by a somewhat puzzled West about how to deal with the problem posed after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. After having enjoyed the holiday he has had in killing Palestinians left and right over the last three weeks, it dawned upon Ariel Sharon that there may have been a stir of conscience in the West that what the Israelis are doing in Palestine, may have begun to backfire on the very same forces that created and remain to be the cause d'être of the problem in Whitehall and Washington DC.
On the other hand, the benefits that Israel had expected to yield from the tragedy at No 1 - 7 World Trade Center may have reached the proportions that shake the foundations of thought and surely the West cannot remain naive to the fact that as tragic and unforgivable the terrorists acts were, there is a clear underlying message that Zionism's holiday in the Holy Land needs to be subdued, if the West is to be relieved of any further agonies, especially as it seems clear that the overwhelming feedback from the Moslem World was, yes we sympathize with you very much and appreciate that the mess in downtown Manhattan is the work of madmen, but then so is the work of the Israeli tanks and bulldozers that are daily destroying human lives and property of innocent human beings yearning for one day of peace in the name of mythological dreams that have no basis in Divine justice and in human moral conscience.
So, just so as to keep the West's memory alive, Mr. Sharon pulled out the pre - World War II scenarios and began to accuse the West of appeasement to the Arabs, in the same manner that the "enlightened" Western democracies appeased Adolf Hitler when the tanks of the latter rolled through Czechoslovakia like a cheesecake in 1938. Somebody better tell Ariel Sharon that it is his tanks and bulldozers that are doing the rolling through the helpless towns and villages of Palestine, which are under a tight siege anyway imposed by the Zionist state since 1967! So, what is Sharon trying to convince the West? That it is their fault that Hitler did what he did to the Jews and that they are about to repeat the same "crime" again. How long will Israel use the World War II scenarios to play on the kind sensitivities of the West? It is really amazing how the West continues to close their eyes for over eighty years to all the terror that the Palestinian people have been facing in the hands of Zionist hooligans, who seemed to have forgotten that they (and many other peoples as well) were once victims of a horrible terror, the likes of which mankind has never seen before! As if the terror by the Israelis is legitimized by the God-given promise to His chosen people! How absurd can one get to think that the Lord Al-Mighty can accept such nonsense? In the end, there is really no difference between Nazism and Zionism, as far as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and Arabs are concerned, who have lost their lives, homes, dignity and honor, under the Western firepower that has been given to Israel, to make up for the tragedy of the Holocaust! We definitely live in a paradoxical world.
But wait, there is still something else that Ariel Sharon is really worried about. While the recent statements of President Bush and Prime Minister Blair about the Palestinians surely echoed a long sought after realization by the West that, hey what is going on in the Holy Land is all wrong, Mr. Sharon's worries are even more closer to home. The Belgian Supreme Court turned down Mr. Sharon's appeal to postpone his indictment for his very close link to the unforgivable mass murder of thousands of Palestinians in Sabra and Shatila in 1982, until he finishes off the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza! So, Mr. Sharon came up to the microphones to declare that the West is appeasing the Arabs now as the West appeased Hitler! What mockery of human history is Sharon trying to project now? It is Ariel Sharon and his Zionist thugs, who are causing havoc left and right in Palestine and not the Arabs. There are no Arab tanks and bulldozers tearing down any civilian homes in the Holy Land! There are no Arab prisons where thousands of innocent people are being detained for no reason at all except to ask to be left in peace, or simply just to remove them out of the way while the bulldozers destroy their homes and farms, not to mention all the ugly kind of torture that that being inflicted on the detainees. In fact, it is the Israelis who have turned the entire West Bank and Gaza to one giant prison camp, as they methodically carry out a slow ethnic cleansing campaign to turn the West Bank and Gaza as Jewish as a bagel!
Ariel Sharon is indeed worried about the Belgian decision, because it seems that all the arm-twisting and pressure of the international Zionist machine was unable to stand in the way of justice in Belgium. Perhaps he is more worried about the danger that the Belgian decision poses to the Zionist goal of turning the Holy Land kosher from the Nile to the Euphrates, which is his only ambition in life, no matter what the cost is to achieve this dream. It is the dream of a demagogue, who like many Zionist demagogues still feel that the West and the whole world owe it to the Jewish people, because of what Hitler did to them! But the realities of the world cannot be hidden forever, for the pain of terror can bring a jolt to human conscience that Zionist propaganda, with all of its might and power, can never hold back.
It is time for Israel to realize that maybe it is a good idea to take advantage of the apparently strong inclination of the Arabs now for peace. Demagoguery has caused enough problems for the world. As for Mr. Sharon, it is time he starts to prepare for his trial in Belgium and let someone else take over the road for peace for Israel and the rest of the world. History should be left for historians to dwell on and not to play with worn out sensitivities, which have long sense become out of context altogether.

Where are the Arab voices of reason?

Karen Dabrowska
On August 2nd, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. On January 17th, 1991, the Gulf war started and the country was subjected to 2,000 bombing raids a day, which turned it from one of the most progressive and prosperous states in the Middle East to a third world backwater. Almost five months elapsed between the invasion and the war, but the Arab and Muslim world made little attempt to convince Saddam Hussein of the error of his ways.
Throughout the six decades of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Arabs have always paid lip service to the Palestinian cause. Tragically, the fiery rhetoric has not been matched with concerted efforts to aid the Palestinian people. Thousands of Palestinians are still languishing in refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria, and severe restrictions are placed on those residing in Gulf states.
A settlement which could have brought about the just peace of which the Palestinians dream was brokered, not by an Arab country, but by the West, and signed in Oslo.
When the Taliban regime dynamited the giant statues of Buddah, the Muslim world looked on horrified. But where was their rapid intervention force which could have prevented this destruction of a cultural heritage - the property, not of Afghanistan but of all mankind?
Osama Bin Laden did not suddenly appear like a genie from a magic lamp. He spent years consolidating his network, recruiting his 'disciples' and fomenting a deadly cocktail of extremist ideology and sophisticated technology. His recruits were given a free hand to set up their camps, spread their version of Islam, and plan their operations.
America is certainly not blameless for the explosions that rocked New York and Washington. It is possible that the policy makers who support Israel regardless of how many UN resolutions it violates, and withdraw their representatives from international conferences like the UN Conference on Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, were unaware of how much hatred their policies caused. Maybe now the death of 5,000 - 6,000 children a month in Iraq, caused largely by sanctions which America has no intention of lifting, will be seen in a different light.
What happened to the Arab lobby in America? Thousands of Arabs are living in the USA, and President Bush warned that retaliation against them is unacceptable. They have been accepted and integrated into their host society. But what kind of guest, even if he is given permanent residence and accepted as a member of the family, fails to warn his host of impending disaster? Were the Arab Americans blissfully ignorant that the foreign policy of the USA was steering the American ship onto the rocks of revenge and indiscriminate acts of terrorism, for which thousands of innocent people would pay with their lives?
The Arab and Muslim voices of reason have been overshadowed by the war cries of the fanatics.
In London, the ranting of Abu Hamza, the despicable cleric who may have had a hand in the killing of Western tourists in Abyan, Yemen, have received greater media attention than the reasoned statements of FAIR (Forum Against Islamaphobia & Racism), the Principal of the Muslim College, Dr Zaki Badawi, and the British Muslim Council.

Iraqi Islamist, Dr Mowaffak Al Rubaie, suggested that Muslims call for the following urgent actions to be taken:
1. The Organization of Islamic Conference must meet immediately to confront the problem of terrorism lurking in our Muslim societies.
2. The Organization of Islamic Conference should establish clear principles of action and retribution against terrorism that originates in the OIC countries.
3. Help establish an International Tribunal drawn from leading jurists in the world, including Islamic countries with powers to prosecute and apprehend terrorists.
4. The Muslim world should form a strike force composed of elements from the armed forces of a number of Islamic countries led by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia.
5. The strike force should be used to locate and bring to the International Tribunal, terrorist and criminal organizations that use Islam as a cover for appalling acts of violence.
"Terrorism is a global problem. Where it originates in the Muslim world or is led by those who claim an allegiance to Islam, it becomes an Islamic problem first and foremost. The Muslim world must confront this issue head on and not rely on other forces to fight terrorism. Muslims themselves must seize the initiative in destroying terrorism when it originates in their own ranks.
Muslims are at a crossroads now. Either they seize control over their own destiny; or they allow others to set the agenda for what constitutes a "civilized Muslim," Al Rubaie said.
For years, Shi'a Muslim publications such as Dialogue and Discourse have been promoting tolerance and understanding. In the words of the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, "The vast majority of Muslims are decent, upright people who share our horror at what happened."
But the majority of these decent Muslims live under the hegemony of regimes which do not promote freedom and the free flow of information. Repression breeds frustration and anger coupled with a steady flow of recruits to fundamentalist and extremist organizations.
In the words of Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain: "Certainly, people can't help looking at the bombing of Iraq and feeling a sense of quiet fury, but what happened in America is absolutely unacceptable. If you have a grievance, the way to deal with it is to get involved in a democratic process".
Sadly this is not an option for the majority of the world's one billion Muslims.
If Arab and Muslim states fail to respond to the will of the masses and act through diplomatic and peaceful channels to bring an end to the suffering of the Palestinians, the Iraqis and the numerous repressed Muslim minorities throughout the world, the extremists will continue to wage war against the West.