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Persion Mirror
Aug 23 2005
The other Taliban
by Ahmed Tharwat
The expansive, almost romantic media coverage of the Israeli
settlers' withdrawal from Gaza is heartbreaking. The image of
children faces, the cries of the broken dreams and the dramatic human
tragedy of ejecting the Jewish settlers from their biblical land is
painful to watch.
`Painful Israeli compromise for peace' Cries the headlines. `The
confrontation appeared to steel the will of the authorities to put an
end to the emotional and oratorical drama here, which is inevitably
taking a toll on young soldiers in Israel's draft army and even on
professional police officers . ` Wrote the New Your Times reporter
STEVEN ERLANGER You have thousands of Jewish fanatics and
fundamentalists from around the world who abandoned their homes,
countries and friends and took arms to live in the occupied
territories in Palestine, and destroyed the natives Palestinians
dreams, just simply to fulfill thousands of year-old religious
interpretation.
If this is not the most Talibanisque ideology, I don't know what is.
The Israelis' withdrawal is presented in this country as if it is the
most democratic move Sharon has ever mastered. The champion of all
shameful settling and Arab land grabbing is now depicted in the
American press as the champion of all peace and land giveaway. No
reflection, no context of the 38 years of misery and humiliation
resulted from the Israelis occupation that sucked the oxygen of the
Palestinians population to think straight, media coverage with a
conspicuous disregard of the others, the Palestinians natives who had
lived in the land all their lives. For years Arabs/Moslems have been
asking with no avail a simple question; Why only the Israelis are
allowed to fulfill their biblical dreams by force.
That calls to question the way we look at Militant Islamists. If,
according to the Bush administration and the American press, you are
a Moslem and went to fight with another Moslem country, then you are
a terrorist, a fanatic, fundamentalist and Taliban. On the other
hand, an American, a Russian, or a German Jew who leaves his country
for Israel and invades Arab land by force is just a settler who
wanted to live his biblical dream in the promised land, while the
Palestinian who lived on this land for 100's of years and try to
resist occupation is a terrorist and a Moslem fanatic. The occupation
and oppression caused terrorism and not the other way around.
This American tribal thinking of the others, the Palestinians in this
conflict is blinding us from understanding the anger of the Arab and
Moslem world. Our unconditional support for Israel throughout all
these years is muddying our efforts to support democracy and the so
called liberation of the Arab and Moslem world. Palestinians and
Moslems also have their own divine dream, the Serbs look at their own
dream; the Kurdish dream, the Armenians dream, the Shiite dream all
are also dreams that are inspired by ethnic or religious inspiration,
yet only the Zionist dream never called into question in this
country. Not questioning something doesn't necessarily make it right.
The Israelis left Gaza for one simple reason, as Arye Mekel Israeli
consul general in New York acknowledged `We have had to come to terms
with certain unanticipated realities,",. "Ideologically, we are
disappointed. A pure Zionist must be disappointed because Zionism
meant the Jews of the world would take their baggage and move to
Israel . Most did not." The Zionist dream to bring world Jewry to the
Promised Land never really materialized; in fact, more Jews live in
the US than in Israel .
They left the occupied Gaza because the Israelis found themselves a
minority in the Jewish state, they explained, and not because the
territories were illegally occupied by force, `For those who long
considered it folly to settle a handful of Jews among hundreds of
thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the decision to remove
them starting this week seems an acceptance of the obvious.
What possible future could the settlers have had?' says ETHAN BRONNER
in his piece titled, `Why Greater Israel' Never Came to Be' in the
New York Sunday Times on August 14 th , which for those who
romanticize the Jewish state as the only moral democracy in the area
is more of a tactical issue than a human right rights issue.
Morad Serag, a Palestinian psychologist who had his home and his
village confiscated 38 year-ago by those settlers, was asked by a
national public radio reporter about how he feels about what the
Israelis settlers are going through now. `I feel for them, I know
what is like to have your land and homes taking away from you' he
reflected.
Ahmed Tharwat is a guest contributor for PersianMirror from St. Paul,
Minnesota. He is the Producer and host of Belahdan, an Arab-American
TV show. For more, visit www.belahdan.com.
Aug 23 2005
The other Taliban
by Ahmed Tharwat
The expansive, almost romantic media coverage of the Israeli
settlers' withdrawal from Gaza is heartbreaking. The image of
children faces, the cries of the broken dreams and the dramatic human
tragedy of ejecting the Jewish settlers from their biblical land is
painful to watch.
`Painful Israeli compromise for peace' Cries the headlines. `The
confrontation appeared to steel the will of the authorities to put an
end to the emotional and oratorical drama here, which is inevitably
taking a toll on young soldiers in Israel's draft army and even on
professional police officers . ` Wrote the New Your Times reporter
STEVEN ERLANGER You have thousands of Jewish fanatics and
fundamentalists from around the world who abandoned their homes,
countries and friends and took arms to live in the occupied
territories in Palestine, and destroyed the natives Palestinians
dreams, just simply to fulfill thousands of year-old religious
interpretation.
If this is not the most Talibanisque ideology, I don't know what is.
The Israelis' withdrawal is presented in this country as if it is the
most democratic move Sharon has ever mastered. The champion of all
shameful settling and Arab land grabbing is now depicted in the
American press as the champion of all peace and land giveaway. No
reflection, no context of the 38 years of misery and humiliation
resulted from the Israelis occupation that sucked the oxygen of the
Palestinians population to think straight, media coverage with a
conspicuous disregard of the others, the Palestinians natives who had
lived in the land all their lives. For years Arabs/Moslems have been
asking with no avail a simple question; Why only the Israelis are
allowed to fulfill their biblical dreams by force.
That calls to question the way we look at Militant Islamists. If,
according to the Bush administration and the American press, you are
a Moslem and went to fight with another Moslem country, then you are
a terrorist, a fanatic, fundamentalist and Taliban. On the other
hand, an American, a Russian, or a German Jew who leaves his country
for Israel and invades Arab land by force is just a settler who
wanted to live his biblical dream in the promised land, while the
Palestinian who lived on this land for 100's of years and try to
resist occupation is a terrorist and a Moslem fanatic. The occupation
and oppression caused terrorism and not the other way around.
This American tribal thinking of the others, the Palestinians in this
conflict is blinding us from understanding the anger of the Arab and
Moslem world. Our unconditional support for Israel throughout all
these years is muddying our efforts to support democracy and the so
called liberation of the Arab and Moslem world. Palestinians and
Moslems also have their own divine dream, the Serbs look at their own
dream; the Kurdish dream, the Armenians dream, the Shiite dream all
are also dreams that are inspired by ethnic or religious inspiration,
yet only the Zionist dream never called into question in this
country. Not questioning something doesn't necessarily make it right.
The Israelis left Gaza for one simple reason, as Arye Mekel Israeli
consul general in New York acknowledged `We have had to come to terms
with certain unanticipated realities,",. "Ideologically, we are
disappointed. A pure Zionist must be disappointed because Zionism
meant the Jews of the world would take their baggage and move to
Israel . Most did not." The Zionist dream to bring world Jewry to the
Promised Land never really materialized; in fact, more Jews live in
the US than in Israel .
They left the occupied Gaza because the Israelis found themselves a
minority in the Jewish state, they explained, and not because the
territories were illegally occupied by force, `For those who long
considered it folly to settle a handful of Jews among hundreds of
thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the decision to remove
them starting this week seems an acceptance of the obvious.
What possible future could the settlers have had?' says ETHAN BRONNER
in his piece titled, `Why Greater Israel' Never Came to Be' in the
New York Sunday Times on August 14 th , which for those who
romanticize the Jewish state as the only moral democracy in the area
is more of a tactical issue than a human right rights issue.
Morad Serag, a Palestinian psychologist who had his home and his
village confiscated 38 year-ago by those settlers, was asked by a
national public radio reporter about how he feels about what the
Israelis settlers are going through now. `I feel for them, I know
what is like to have your land and homes taking away from you' he
reflected.
Ahmed Tharwat is a guest contributor for PersianMirror from St. Paul,
Minnesota. He is the Producer and host of Belahdan, an Arab-American
TV show. For more, visit www.belahdan.com.