The latest campaign of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza has split the world into supporters of Israel and supporters of Hamas. The ratio of this split is disputable.
During the Israeli offensive the international media were not allowed to enter into Gaza and report from there. The IDF said, it was dangerous for reporters to move in Gaza. They might be kidnapped as the BBC reporter Alan Johnston was in the summer of 2007, or used as human shields by Hamas terrorists. My friends in Gaza told me, via email, Hamas militants raised CNN and BBC banners to disguise themselves and move from one place to another to avoid being targeted by Israeli fire.
Hence, the international media, including the German, voraciously consumed the Hamas propaganda backed by Al Jazeera TV and some Arab journalists. The fact that Hamas was using children and women as human shields and had stocked its rocket arsenals in residential areas in mosques, schools and hospitals from where Hamas militants fired their rockets at Israeli residential areas, was ignored by the media, at least the German media.
All kinds of stories were narrated about how “egregious” and “inconsiderate” the IDF was. The German media reported the story of Ahmed who claimed that he was not a Hamas fighter. He wanted to flee an apartment block under fire with his wife and children, but the Israeli soldiers continued firing at him and his family. He and his family remained alive miraculously. This report was footnoted by “We cannot verify the veracity of this incident.”
My friends in Gaza also told me that before the IDF attacked any site it urged the inhabitants of that site per pamphlets and radio to evacuate that area. They (my friends) also said, “It is not true when people allege they had no where else to go. Hamas deliberately forced people to stay in areas under attack so that many of them were killed, especially children and women, and later use in their propaganda.”
Now, after the current fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Israel allowed journalists to enter Gaza, including a German team. The German radio, WDR5 broadcast a report by Bettina Marx on Feb. 1, 2009 from Gaza. Marx reported the story of Ra’id. The gist of her report is: the Israeli soldiers were barbaric. They killed innocent children and women and destroyed their homes and the Strips infrastructure.
Let us talk facts about Israel and Hamas. Since Hamas came to power in 2006 it established itself as a totalitarian power using mafia methods of rule. It even liquidated its rival Fatah. Until this moment nobody dare protest against Hamas.
On the other hand, Israel is the only real democracy in the Middle East. The Arab population of Israel has their own representatives in the Knesset (Parliament). Six Palestinian MPs sit in the Knesset led by Ahmad Tibi, an outspoken critic of Israel. He is also the deputy speaker of the Knesset. In one of the latest sessions of the Knesset, Tibi compared the Israeli offensive in Gaza to the Crystal Nacht and concentration camps organized by Nazi Germany.
Where in the Arab world, except Iraq and Lebanon, would you find representatives of ethnic and religious minorities in parliaments in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia?
In Syria, for example, the 300,000 Kurds in northern Syria are not even allowed to use their own language, let alone being represented in the Syrian parliament, controlled by the Baath party.
Egypt has been undemocratically ruled by Husni Mubarak since 1981. For a full story check out the
following video clip:
Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy and the word democracy is unknown in that country. It has a “Majlis Shura”, a kind of consultative council appointed by the King. Shari’a, an Islamic stone-age law that discriminates against women, and incites to hatred and violence against non-Muslims, is the constitution and law of the country. The Shiite minority is ruthlessly oppressed, and expatriates are treated like slaves.
Since 9/11 the Kuwaiti parliament has been ruled by Islamists. The majority in this parliament support Hamas. They are also filled with ingratitude to the Americans for liberating their country from Saddam Hussain of Iraq, and besides they blast the Americans for supporting Israel.
Some Western apologists also support Hamas. Most recently, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, former British ambassador to the UN, made a patently ludicrous analogy between Hamas and the IRA on BBC Radio Four. To add insult to injury he characterized Hamas as a “resistance movement”.
The truth of the matter is the IRA in Northern Ireland fought for independence and did not struggle to wipe out the UK from the world map and establish a Catholic state as Hamas wants. Hamas ultimate genocidal objective is the destruction of Israel and killing the Jews wherever they are. Check out Hamas charter in the
following link:
George Mitchell, the special envoy of President Obama to the Middle East, will not achieve anything as far as Hamas is concerned and as long as it is in control. Mitchell himself excluded direct talks with Hamas. Unless Hamas is neutralized, this militant organization and its affiliates will continue disrupting any peace initiatives for the Middle East. During all the ceasefires brokered between Israel and Hamas, including the current one, Hamas has kept firing its rockets against Israel. Hence, Hamas remains the problem, the culprit, not the “barbaric” Israelis.
Hamas does not care about civilian casualties and destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure as long as it remains in power. It is celebrating its “victory” over the mightiest military power in the region. It claims that Allah and Islam are behind its “victory”.
“Nakba”, (calamity) which Arabs use to call the defeat they suffered after the two wars they waged against Israel in 1967 and 1973, i.e. the Arab view towards Israel, is being considered by many Israelis to teach in Israeli schools.
Which Arab country would come across the idea of teaching the Israeli version of Nakba and the circumstances that lead to it? None. Arab school textbooks across the board depict Israel as the “aggressor”, the “outlaw”.
In 2000 the Israeli ministry of education under Ehud Barak proposed teaching the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish, a Palestinian poet who died in 2008. Darwish depicts in all his poems the abject misery of Palestinians and deplores the Israeli occupation of his home land. Yet, Darwish’s books have been translated into Hebrew and are available in every bookstore. Before he died he deplored the “victory” of Hamas and said, “Let’s rejoice. Hamas has triumphed. Gaza has won its independence from the West Bank. One people now have two states, two prisons who do not greet each other. We are dressed in executioners’ clothes.”
In which Arab country would you find books telling the Israeli view of things? Even classical novels like “The Thousand and one Nights” are banned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.
Although Egypt and Jordan have peace treaties with Israel, the citizens of these countries are not allowed to travel to Israel. Three of my Egyptian colleagues (scholars) and two Jordanians are jailed in Cairo and Amman for merely attending academic conferences in Tel Aviv. They have been charged with treason and espionage.
Politics and credibility go hand in hand. Reality on the ground is the scale through which credibility is measured not propaganda. The Arab-Israeli conflict can and must be measured along how countries in the Middle East are ruled and how they treat their enemies.
The situation in Gaza and in the Middle East at large must be judged by reality on the ground and not by propaganda, not by what Ra’id, Ahmed, Ali, and Mustafa say from Gaza.
While the politics of Israel is guided by principles of common sense, rationalism, pluralism, and democracy, the Arab states are ruled by dictatorships, oppression, and demagogy.
This state of affairs provides enough evidence to help the world community judge the situation in Gaza and in the Middle East regardless how propagandistic and fact-twisting the Arab media and their consumers are.
In light of all the above, Arab politics remains polemic and anti-peace and the Israeli politics is more rational and pragmatic.
It is a well-known fact that democracies do not wage wars against their neighbors. Dictatorships do so to prolong the life of their despotic regime and distract from their failure to provide decent life to their citizens.
Authoritarian regimes use and understand only the language of violence. It was the case with Hitler and is the case with Hamas. This terrorist organization must be removed from power at all costs. Hamas’s vanishing will liberate Gaza citizens from the grip of an evil hijacker and peace will have a chance to prevail.
Dr. Sami Alrabaa, an ex-Muslim, is a professor of Sociology and an Arab/Muslim culture specialist. Before moving to Germany he taught at Kuwait University, King Saud University, and Michigan State University. Dr. Sami Alrabaa can be reached at samialrabaa@yahoo.com
