Long Live Palestine

I literally spent the entire day yesterday watching Al Jazeera; Since I am off for two weeks now with nothing to do. I can’t say I was totally shocked with what happened yesterday regarding the brutal way the incident has been dealt with by a people that believe that they are “Gods Chosen People”, who I bet were thinking to themselves “who the hell are those that want to break this siege we have on Gaza? We will teach them a lesson!” This, my friends, is probably how the issue of the Aid Ships was discussed within the Zionist entities’ top political and military leadership and it can’t be something that is far fetched given the way the Zionist entity totally miscalculated the repercussions of its actions, as it did earlier in its assault on Gaza in 2008.

With its actions the Zionist entity from the first second lost the media war, public opinion across the world turned against it. Who can explain killing 20 people in international waters and then forcefully taking those ships (all this while in international waters) to Asdod? This act can only be explained in two words: Butchery and Piracy. On the other hand, while it seemed that world governments were angry with the savagery of the Zionists, calling ambassadors in more than one country (Sweden, Norway, Spain, Greece, etc) diplomatically Israel neither gained or lost anything (with the exception to Turkey) which can be symbolized with the inability of the UN to at least condemn the actions of the Tyrant entity of our day. Compared with what the UN came up with when poor Somali fishermen hijacked ships off the Somali coast in order to get some compensation for the apparent disposal of toxic waste off the Somali coast that destroyed the marine ecosystem in the area, the UN decided that those were pirates and the entire world sent warships to destroy this dangerous phenomenon!

The Zionist entity, or what is commonly referred to as Israel, believes that it doesn’t really matter what the entire world thinks, whether the entire world likes what it does or doesn’t, that as long as the US and other Western States, will continue to defend the Zionist cause blindly it will survive. The way “Israel” survives, is by keeping public opinion about the Israel in a mist; no one should really know what is going on, it is not important what the rogue “Jewish State” does because its people, i.e. the Jews, have been through alot; They’ve been through the holocaust. What is amazing is how on Fox news (I know its a bad example but an example nevertheless of American mainstream media) while the anchor was discussing the latest news with an Israeli spokes person, the news presenter took it as a fact that the volunteers and the activists on the ship did actually have weapons asking the spokesperson, “what do we know about these weapons?”

The question remains though, why did “Israel” do what it did on those ships? Two reasons are available for this question.

1) The Siege on Gaza. The purpose of this siege has different purposes, firstly it is placed on a part of the Palestinian territory where Hamas has taken control after its counterpart in the West Bank along with “Israel” tried to forcefully overthrow the newly democratically elected government in which Hamas won the majority of the votes. The aim of the siege is not only to try to oust Hamas from the Gaza strip by turning the population against it, but it is also being used by the “Israeli’s” in order to force the Palestinians to make further concessions in their negotiations with Israel. In order to accomplish its goals, “Israel” must make this siege as inhumane as possible. Trying to break this siege on Gaza will ruin the “Israeli” plans of creating an economic peace rather than an actual peace that will lead to the creation of a Palestinian state with full sovereignty over its territory.

2) Breaking this inhumane siege on Gaza which has killed many people humiliates the Zionists. A group of activists that have come from different parts of the world join together in order to break down something the Zionists have been building and see as a strategic tool for their current plans has infuriated the Zionists in all the political and military spheres. The way they see it “we are the superior beings, who are those Goi that are trying to defy our will?” Therefore what happened yesterday was already planned, it was not a mistake and Israel was not going to allow its siege to be broken by anyone.

We have witnessed yesterday how people with a living conscious and thought, who have witnessed the suffering of a people who have done nothing except to call for their legitimate rights of freedom; freedom of choice, freedom of determination and freedom to live act bravely in the face of Tyranny. These activists and those that have been martyred are what each of us needs to and should be, we all have to see injustice and oppression beyond the superficial elements that divide humanity, and to act on eliminating this injustice and oppression. United those people were against this injustice of the Palestinians to the extent that people that still have enmity to each other Greeks and Turks sailed by each other in order to lift this injustice off the Palestinians.

Today Palestine is a cause that is no longer an Arab Cause, but a cause for every free person on this Earth. Today Palestine is a Symbol for Every Free Person. Long Live Palestine.

Putting in the effort

Its been a packed couple of months and its amazing how time flies by, and how any persons' life moves through various transitions and phases without even noticing it has. We all go through the childhood phase, teenage phase, slightly mature and mature phase without noticing the difference unless we actually think about it; its natural, things develop and people move on. But sometimes when you sit all alone and remember how things were in the past you start to think how good things were "back then" and how you miss the "good old days" when it was "back then" you were probably thinking "when the hell will this end!!?"

Nikos Kazantzakis (I'm dying to read his books, unfortunately I live in an isolated bubble, i.e. Syria) puts it "While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it we do suddenly realize — sometimes with astonishment — how happy we had been".

As you grow you start to see your first dreams die off, and a person starts to become more 'realistic'. You leave your dreams of being an astronaut, an astronomer, a president and go for that realistic stuff; accounting, finance, engineering or even the military. Some of us will grow and accomplish our childhood dreams, others won't. Sometimes I wonder how come I didn't end up doing what I always wanted to do, and why right now I'm doing something completely different.

But I think I figured it out, and that it all comes down to one thing: Effort. In order to accomplish what you want you have to do something about it. Nothing comes without effort. This reminds me of the story of Maryam (Mary) in the Quran where it says:

"And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree: she cried (in her anguish): "Ah! would that I had died before this! Would that I had been a thing forgotten and out of sight!" (23) But (a voice) cried to her from beneath the (palm-tree): "Grieve not! for thy Lord hath provided a rivulet beneath thee; (24) "And shake towards thyself the trunk of the palm-tree: it will let fall fresh ripe dates upon thee.(25)"

How many of us have shaken a palm tree before and dates fell from it? It is very difficult especially if it is a women giving birth as well. Although God is more than capable of making those dates fall from the tree without Mary having to shake the tree, God almighty is trying to show us here that without any sort of effort, even if you are thinking of doing the right thing, nothing will happen. If you sit around praying to God for things to happen, and then do nothing about it, believe it or not, nothing will happen.

Which reminds me of the shiekh/imam at my local mosque. I've heard people (non-muslim) talk about this before, how imams at mosques pray for the destruction/humiliation/suffering of other people (non-muslims) and pray that God makes the muslims victorious over their enemies, and then we wonder why non-muslims think muslims are all terrorists.

I want to show two points here, 1) that shiekh is doing exactly what I was talking about earlier, he stands at the minbar (pulpit in the mosque where the imam stands to deliver sermons) praying/supplicating for things to happen, and then he goes back home and sleeps, or what ever he does.

2) That when people at the time of the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) used to come up to the prophet and tell him to pray for the defeat and destruction of the enemies of Islam, the prophet would pray that they are guided to Islam and not for them to be destroyed. Why does that Imam, and many others, don't follow the sunnah (teachings derived from the actions and sayings of the Prophet) of the Prophet? Why do they do what the prophet didn't do?

We are a frustrated people, us Arabs and muslims, from the years of injustice and persecution that has been placed upon us, and our inability to defend ourselves, but will more talk and no action ever do us any good; has it ever done any good?    

how arabs treat each other

This whole talk and hype regarding the football game between Egypt and Algeria which will qualify one of those teams to the world cup has unveiled the true colors of what we 'Arabs' think of each other, I am talking here at the people and not the governments.

I was amazed to hear after the game what one of the Egyptian presenters of a TV show had to say. As soon as the game was over the presenter (a lady) said something along the lines of 'this win is a pride for all Arabs'. The first thing that came to my mind is "so Algerians are not Arab?!"

To be honest, and whether we like to admit it or not, us "Arabs" never really 'liked' each other. We never treat an 'Arab' in the same why we would treat any other person. Let me give some examples, Example 1: if your an Arab and you apply for a job in the Gulf region you would be given X amount of salary per month, but if your still that same Arab but this time you apply to a job saying that your actually an American/Canadian/British citizen you will be given double that salary.

Example 2: when driving a car in another Arab country which say your there to visit family,and you are stopped at a checkpoint and you happen to be holding a driving license from another arab country which you arn't meant to be driving with, you will either be harrassed for a while or taken to jail, on the other hand if you hold an American/Canadian/British driving license the cop will see your license, and will then salute you then he will thank you for stopping and will ask you to please move on. (personal experience)

Example 3: When two Arab football teams face each other in a sensitive game one like lets say, a World cup qualifier game! The game will most definitely end up with escalating tensions between the two countries (on all levels including public, political, media, etc) like what happened between Egypt and Algeria, Syria and Kuwait (AFC cup), Kuwait and Saudi Arabia (Gulf cup), Syria and UAE (world cup qualifier) and so on. On the other hand when Arab teams face other countries nothing happens and the best example here is the lose of Tunisia against Mozambique and Bahrain against New Zealand given that both are vital world cup qualifying games which both Tunisia and Bahrain unfortunately were not able to make.

Example 4: In some Arab countries an Arab will require a visa prior to entering another Arab country (and may require to fill out an application and then wait for a couple of weeks before that Arab person gets the visa to visit another Arab country) but for non Arabs a visa can be obtained in the airport with no hassle or anything of that sort.

You see, we Arabs "speak alot" meaning we say what we don't really mean and many Arabs pretend like they are cool with each other and like each other, but in reality...

Arab Human Development 2009

The new UN Arab Human Development report 2009 has been released recently and is available in both Arabic and English for download HERE.

A summary will follow soon.