The Arab Press and pro-Arab and Islamic bloggers and members of sites such as Newsvine are constantly up in arms over the supposed war crimes the Israeli government is perpetrating against the Palestinian people. Prior to Israel conquering the territories of the West Bank, which was annexed initially by Jordan, and Gaza, which was Palestinian only insomuch as it was a part of Egypt, the conflict in the Middle-East was referred to as the Arab/Israeli conflict.
It has now become the Palestinian/Israeli conflict–a convenient change of term for Arab propaganda, as it is much easier to define the Palestinians as the victim or minority than it was previously to define the Arabs in that fashion. The irony is that the conflict is still an Arab/Israeli conflict, and by no means a Palestinian/Israeli conflict. The Palestinians, much to their misfortune, are little more than puppets in this sad game, used by the hostile Arab states in their proxy war against Israel.
Bias and Propaganda
It is very convenient for the Arabs to oppose Israel in this manner. After several failed wars, it has become obvious to Syria, Iran and others, that fighting Israel directly will fail as it has in the past. Invading Israel has only been met with humiliation and loss of land. The Palestinians, as they have been termed, wage a much dirtier war.
The irony here, of course, is that prior to being a part of Israel, the Palestinians were parts of other States. The Gazans were de facto Egyptians, and the West Bank Palestinians were Jordanian, and apparently that was alright with them. There was no call for the destruction of Jordan or Egypt. No Palestinian militant groups formed and began firing rockets or blowing up buildings in their surrogate States. Not until “Palestine” became a part of Israel did this become an issue, and that did not occur until Israel was once again attacked by her neighbors.
The dirty war that is now being fought is as much one of ideas as it is one of guns and bombs. The terrorists use the idea of Palestine to merit world sympathy; use women and children as human shields to increase the civilian body count and garner even more world sympathy; and use the idea of being the underdog to make Israel look like a bully, when in reality Israel is surrounded by her enemies, who are far more wealthy and populous than Israel.
In a land of artificial borders, why is it that Israel is so singled out? Why not Syria, Jordan, or Iraq? Certainly it’s not because of the Jewish population! No, rather it is the Zionist movement that so riles the Arab world. The Zionists who, apparently, have no human decency, no respect for life or liberty.
The Zionists who make such an easy target because they require no introspection from the Arab world; because they are easy to blame, whereas the governments of Syria, Iran, the former government of Iraq, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are all too dangerous to attack, either militarily or through words. The oppressive regimes of the Middle-East are free to suppress the freedoms of their own people because they have the perfect scapegoat: Zionist Israel. Ironic that these States do nothing to help their Palestinian brethren, isn’t it?
Or is it more to their benefit to keep the Palestinians on the front lines, suffering for the rest of the Arab world?
The Speck of Dust in Your Neighbors Eye…
Indeed, if claims made about the Zionist aggression are ever to be taken seriously, then the Arabs must first clean their own house. Where are the protesting Muslims in Sudan? Why the constant Arab press coverage of Palestinian suffering, while the genocide in Darfur goes on without so much as a whisper? Calling the conflict in Israel a “holocaust” or “genocide” is very much the fashionable thing to do these days, yet no evidence backs this up. Just hold Darfur up to Gaza or the West Bank and you can’t help but see the differences.
In Darfur 450,000 people had died by 2007 whereas in Israel nowhere near that number can be counted over decades of strife. Calling this conflict genocide is irresponsible and misleading.
So where are the Arab and Muslim protesters in Darfur? If these same people railing against Israel are truly concerned with human life and dignity, then why do they remain silent in the face of Sudanese genocide? The Arab militias, the janjaweed, are a brutal weapon in the hands of the Arab Sudanese government. Are we to believe that somehow their murder of black Africans is less ghastly than the defensive measures Israel has taken against the terrorists in Gaza and the West Bank?
Nevertheless, the Arab world remains hushed over its own atrocities. Rather than looking inwards, they have become dedicated to the pathology of blame, consumed with the need to find wrong in others rather than in themselves.
E.D. is a writer and the editor in chief at NeoConstant. He works and writes in Arizona where he lives with his wife and daughter. He also writes at 
on Aug 21st, 2008 at 9:07 am