I continue to be impressed by things I read in Asharq Alawsat. This is one of the more interesting pieces I have seen about the "setback," what Arabs call the '67 war:
[...] Can the West go back to the time of the Thirty Years’ War between the Catholics and Protestants? Can the revolutions that once overthrew regimes return once again to European capitals? Can the West go back in time to the Kingdom of Prussia era, or even to the time of Bismarck?
Their time marches forward and crosses the past after assimilating and incorporating it into the fabric of the present. Theirs is a past that does not strangle the present but rather enriches it, relieving the past from the pressure of the present and setting the present free from the shackles of the past.
But this is not the case in our part of the world! The past overshadows the present while the present begs for the crumbs of achievement from the past to live on, but neither succeeds in living independently away from the child-like resort to the past, nor can it let go of that past without exaggerating, distorting and even damning it every time it experiences a ‘setback’!
Our time is cyclical and our problems keep revolving until our minds are made dizzy. For forty years, we have talking about victory without a victory, and preaching a unity when none existed – although this same unity is not necessarily the solution inasmuch as it doesn’t need to be a realistic idea that conforms to the geographical and historical conditions. Still, this is what was said and is still being said with a repeated frequency that induces laughter and tears!
Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, the symbol of media defeat, is still talking and talking and talking through his forum on ‘Al Jazeera’. What does this mean?! It means that criticism is a virtue that is not practiced here and that we are creative in the art of accommodating ourselves and others to delusion.
A movement for a new awareness should have been launched, in addition to the removal of the symbols from that cyclical cultural, social and political era. We should have reviewed our history and entire discourse and recognized our true stature – without lies. Moreover, we should have determined our capabilities whilst discerning truth from falsities. A rational shock should have occurred to shake off history, examine the present and come up with an explanation as to why our part of the world has been resisting development, power and growth!
Imagine, after forty years since the defeat and too many promises made about the war to restore our dignity, we are now talking about Fatah al Islam, Osbat al Ansar and Jund al Sham in the Palestinian refugee camps!
In Gaza, both Hamas and Fatah are slaying one another while the world is fed up with us and our endless crises. [...]
Contrast that with the
MPAC-UK site. An upcoming Al-Jazeera program, we are told
will explain the truth behind the 6 Day War. It was not, as some incorrectly claim, a pre-emptive strike but rather a well planned military offensive by Israel against its Arab neighbours.
Crossposted on
Soccer Dad
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