Ayoon Wa Azan (A state that protects its citizens)

Our Arab identity means that a citizen like me often chooses a topic that he knows little about, but becomes more committed to it in a manner commensurate with his ignorance of the subject. Thus, I spent a week in Davos to find a solution to the problems of the world economy. But this did not prevent me from following other news that I am familiar with, and so I present them to the readers out of knowledge rather than ignorance: France and Mexico spent years entangled in a crisis between their governments and peoples because of a French woman named Florence Cassez, who was sentenced to 60 years in prison in Mexico after being convicted of being involved with a kidnapping and racketeering ring headed by her lover. Mexico's Supreme Court released the French woman due to irregularities in her trial, and not because she is innocent. She was given a hero's welcome when she returned to her country, and was greeted at the airport by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. A great country that played a key role in the European Renaissance mobilizes fervently to reclaim a suspected citizen. Meanwhile, a hundred people are killed in Syria every day and no one asks about them except their bereaved relatives. In Egypt, rather than having celebrations for the second anniversary of the revolution, demonstrations are held against the Muslim Brotherhood rule and people are killed. In Libya, militias and armed gangs are not happy with what they are perpetrating within the country, and now are extending their tentacles into Algeria. The situation in Iraq is not better at all. My grandmother, God rest her soul, used to read the news on the killing in our countries and bemoan the people who die and no one asks about them […]. I am perhaps one of few Arabs who proclaim the Nazi Holocaust to be true, and had indeed claimed the lives of six million Jews. However, this position does not invalidate the fact that there is an ongoing holocaust against the Palestinians for a hundred years now, being perpetrated at the hands of Israeli settlers or governments (after 1948) that are both terrorist and fascistic. The crime against the Jews is nearly 70 years old, but the crime against the Palestinians spans from yesterday to today and tomorrow. The annual anniversary of the Holocaust is upon us, and, I have read about a new book by a Holocaust survivor (there are as many books about it as there were victims). I also read dozens of articles about the Nazis, but no mention what so ever of the ongoing crime against the Palestinians whose country was stolen and whose homes continue to be appropriated and demolished while they are killed. The Sunday Times of London published a historical cartoon on Holocaust Memorial Day showing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu building the apartheid wall on top of Palestinian corpses. The cartoon is accurate, and there is no better proof of that than the fact that the Israeli government protested, and so did its ambassador in London and the Jewish Anti-Defamation League in Washington, in addition to Likudnik publications and websites that defend the crimes of the government of Israel. If that cartoon did not truly reflect a reality, then the war criminals in and around the Israeli government would not have protested. So I thank the cartoonist in the Sunday Times Gerald Scarfe who has worked for this major Sunday paper for 44 years, a measure of his ability and popularity. I conclude with President Barack Obama. We all want Obama free of election shackles and honest to himself and the people. This Obama serves his country and not Israel, and fulfills his promises laid out in his famous speech in Cairo in 2009. This new Obama is yet to appear. Instead, I read the transcript of Fox News’s interview with the president and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and found near the end that this was his response about not intervening in Syria. He said, “Syria is a classic example of […] our involvement, [where] we want to make sure that not only does it enhance U.S. security, but also that it is doing right by the people of Syria and neighbors like Israel that are going to be profoundly affected by it.” Intervene in Syria for the benefit or protection of Israel? Why not Lebanon, Jordan or Turkey? Who protects us from Israel and its terrorism, and its impunity with the U.S. veto at the UN Security Council? President Obama’s reply to the anchor is shameful and frightening, and does not bode well for the next four years. --- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.