Regards to all
I’m truly proud to join the team of Mideast Youth, much appreciation to Esra’a for introducing this wonderful work to me, and for allowing me to take part in it as well. I’ll try to introduce myself to the team and to the readers into what will hopefully be a productive experience.
I’m a 21-year-old Jordanian engineering student living in Amman, passionate about all Middle Eastern issues from smoking habits to oppression and dictatorship, realistic enough to believe in the day things turns out just fine, while going through constant struggle with my numbness to see that day coming. In what matter politics, the Palestinian case labels the core of it all to me, a cornerstone to neutralize this region of flames, and in what matters Arabs, their current enslavers are my biggest enemies, whether they’re other fellow Arabs, traditional gold diggers, or even dark ideas and myths.
If I’m to write, I might be sarcastic or acting professional, but most of the times I’ll be boring. It’s very unlikely that I get offended, sometimes I shock my self with the level of tolerance I show, but then again I realize it’s not tolerance but rather indifference. I’m a huge defender of personal and public freedoms, that leads to a deep resentment to all Arab regimes inside my mind, and to a conviction of that things will definitely become better. Public awareness is always the first step in my perspective.
Hopefully, I’ll add something and learn a lot, I started blogging more than a year ago, and here’s my proof 
I’m currently Enjoying My Space and hoping for others to do the same.
Omar Fahd
Join the Conversation
Lovely introduction. I know I’m doing this community a huge favor by inviting you. Thanks so much for your time and interest and I hope you’ll get a lot out of this place the way we all do!
Hmm well I can describe your posts in many ways, and “boring” is most certainly not one of them!
Hi Omar
Looking forward to reading your postings.
Tse.
Omar-
It is a question I ask often…but why is the Palestinian issue such a core issue to “the Arab people” and even to Muslims at large.
I can see it as a key Jordian issue…since so many Jordanians are Palestinians (ironically with a peace treaty with Israel)… and a huge issue for Lebanon who has her own Palestinian problem…Other than that…I still wonder why folks might not be a bit more concerned with places like Darfur where Muslims have killed Muslims in just a few years that far excedes the entire Palestinian conflict…
I, of course, see the Palestinian issue as important…but it often seems grossly disproportionate to other issues…
A friend of mine, from Darfur, was at this big pow-wow in Qater recently…3-4 days of mostly Palestinian/Israel and Iraq talk. Arabs from all over the world and not a single word on Darfur…or Algeria or Saudia…
I would like your opinion Omar.
Omar-
Here…take a look…
http://www.damanga.org/newsroom/press_releases/2007/press_022807.html
Howie, just in case you didn’t notice our header on our Darfur project is inspired by the very question you ask.
The thing with Israel and Palestine is that it’s a media war… with Darfur, it’s lack of media attention, and that is the main difference. Media outlets from both sides react to each other, and that creates this whole level of discourse around Israel and Palestine, but then a horrible conflict like Darfur gets 0 attention.
Now the ultimate question is… is it because they don’t matter (meaning we are generally racist I guess) or is it because we don’t know how to react to it? The media won’t report on things that you can’t really react to, instead of just ‘sad’ news they need controversy. What’s happening in Darfur is tragic, but it’s not as controversial and attention-grabbing as what’s happening in Israel/Palestine, so I really think it has to do with the audience as well because that’s what the media is thinking about. To maintain the attention they need to put their audience’s interests before anyone else’s, and it’s pretty sad.
I know the question was to Omar, but that is how I see it.
Esra’a
Long time no talk my dear…and yes I expected you to beat Omar to the punch. How did I know that?
To begin with…I have the greatest of admiration for ME Youth and the controversial, even dangerous stances y’all take…Darfur, Iran, Saudia, Egypt…so do understand that that is a given.
Oh this very very touchy subject…I do very much disagree with you. For example…the folks at the conference Mohamed was at are by no means backwoods crackers wandering in a cactus field…these were highly educated, well-known figures…not a WORD…not a WORD on what is currently the biggest man-made catastrophy in the world (with the exception of an American and then Mohamed at the end)?
I am going to say the magic word and yell at me if you will…but if that were Jews and/or American’s busily raping and slaughtering black Muslims in Darfur…the conference folk would have mentioned it at the conference…no?
And my marriage proposal still stands.
-Howie, Unfortunately, I cannot give a clear-cut answer to your question, I’ll only propose some points though,
-The issue with Palestine is very unique. To Arabs, the idea of losing a land is exceptionally sensitive, and with the case of Palestine it wasn’t just a land, it was a holly land! The only sacred places in Islam are three, two in Saudi Arabia and the other is Jerusalem, this explains why the issue touches Muslims at large. In other places and in other causes, say like in Darfur, it is rarely about a land, I mean it’s rarely about losing a land to a foreigners.
-The relatively long period of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a very big reason behind the continuous attention. Try to imagine a massive tsunami wave devastating a whole country killing millions at once, the attention dragged will be huge, but two or three years later, no one will mention the issue again, while on the other hand, imagine a much smaller wave hitting even a smaller country everyday for over than 50 continuous years, regardless to the final number of casualties in both cases, the second case will draw much huge attention on the long term. The first case is something like Darfur, (even though it didn’t actually get the required attention!) and the second one is like the Palestinian case.
-Palestinians in general are highly educated individuals scattered around the world, the Palestinian activists did a great job a long the years in drawing attention to their case. In other places and cases like in Darfur for instance, the lack of local activism plays a major rule, poverty, sickness, and ignorance also do their part. You can take the Holocaust as an example on the quality of activism; for some people, the Jewish propaganda succeeded in summarizing WWII in the death of 3 million jews, the other 17 million lost lives seemed to be diminishing by time!
-The media war! The points raised by Esra’a.
-Arab Racism! Here you go, I guess that’s what you wanted to hear from the beginning. Arab racism works in two ways, the first is that Arabs seem to overlook what other Arabs do, if other Arabs do something wrong, they try to minimize and overlook that. The other way is that Arabs will exaggerate any offense coming from non-Arabs to the maximum, as you were trying to say.
You cannot take the points solely, what I’m trying to say is that the situation is an outcome of those points (and probably more) combined together, though in my case, the Palestinian cause is my number one priority simply because I’m Palestinian.
and on a very side note, what do you think that exaggerated attention did to the Palestinians? where did all this lead?
Omar-
Thanks for your response…it is the beginning of more dialouge…There are so many points I would like to comment on (oh it was 6 million exterminated by Hitler and 14 million non-Jews and WWII took the lives of around 50 million people total). Anyhow…let’s hold off on the some of the old arguments and counter arguments for now. You tried to give me an honest answer to my question, so I will just keep my remarks to your question.
What did the exaggerated attention get the Palestinians?
1. Finanacial and much public support
2. Close scrutiny of Israeli actions
3. Their cause has not been forgotten…which has happened to just about every other group of people that had displacement problems back in those days (including many Jews…e.g. Jews expelled from Arab lands, including my wife’s family)
4. Some of the most powerful countries in the world have that issue high on their agendas. For example, the USA has been involved in peace making attempts on numerous occasion where, say…they did not much care about the Central American Soccer War.
5. A lot of propoganda gains in the propoganda wars.
And now I have another related question. Beside the propoganda war, the main mode of obtaining Palestianian goals, since even before the State of Israel existed, has been rejectionism, extremism and terror.
Where did all that lead?
By-the-way…I am again impressed by the English I see on these posts.
Howie,
I might have put my question in the short version, what I was trying to ask is something like “what did the “Financial and much public support, Close scrutiny of Israeli actions, propaganda gains in the propaganda wars” bring to the Palestinians”? They are now in a worse condition than they were even after 1967, no right for return, locked in a huge prison in Gaza, their lands are being once again eaten by a so-called security wall, and they’re in no safe place from Israel’s death machine!
I’ll strongly agree on that their case hasn’t been forgotten, that’s the elephant in the salon of struggle. And another advantage as one may conclude is probably that Israel didn’t completely annihilate them!
Now, your back question is pretty justified I guess, even though I might change it a little, simply because what you see as terror I may consider as resistance, (and I’m not talking about suicidal attacks on civilians here!), what I see is that practically nothing brought any real benefit to the Palestinian people, neither the propaganda war, nor the armed struggle. The disaster from where I see is that even a peace treaty won’t bring them a lot, Israel says no to the borders of 1967, no right for return, and most probably no to east Jerusalem! This time, and in order for a real star over, the peace agreements MUST give the Palestinians a lot for a change. That’s how messed up the situation is, and that’s why everyone should get involved.
Omar-
Of course we see this much differently…the one point you and I or me and Esra’a will never agree on is the chicken or the egg issue…who really started and sustained the problem. Again…I am going to avoid the back-and-forth though I must say if Israel is committing genocide agains the Palestinians, then they are really really bad at it, especially considering they could nuc., turn off the water, turn of the power…Instead, Palestians work in Israel, shop in Israel, go to universties and other schools in Israel, have their own newspapers…does not sound like “extermination”…but I guess if you kill a thousand people a year and but birth control pills in the water…Israel could exterminate the Palestians in about 10,000 years…that is what it would take at the current rate. So let’s stay away from hyperbole…shall we?
In terms of settlements…geez…you are talking about a few thousand people…the vast majority of “settlements” probably 80% or more is the natural expansion of Jerusalem.
Given those points, I am all for a solution…Israel will have to give up on “greater Israel” and the Palestinians are going to have to give up on getting their homes back in Haifa, just like the Jews have had to give up on their homes in Iraq and similar places.
You see…I don’t believe in a “final settlement” as such. I think it should occur in stages…you call Gaza a jail…I would call it a self-imposed jail because there is no law, no order, just groups that often want to kill Israelis and then busy themselves with killing each other. It is filled with rocket and bomb making factories, smuggled weapons and tunnels to smuggle terror into Israel. And I have not even mentioned the criminial activity of drug dealing and car theft.
The Palestinians have never soundly renounced violence as a means of getting their goals and you still did not answer my question…What has terrorism, rejectionism and violence, the central (not sole) methodolgy of the Palestinian movement gained for the Palestinian people?
Well…besides expressing angry feelings and getting some revenge…it has achived the exact opposite of your hopes…
I realize we see this much much differently…I have no interest in debate…which to me is a set of tricks….but I would like to continue an intelligent exploration of these issues with you.
-Howie, apparently, something stirred your emotions, I can’t find which sentence did that, but I’ll have to clarify somethings,
It’s not a chicken-and-egg-situation, Zionists started this, period.
I didn’t say that Israel wants to exterminate all the Palestinians, I was trying to say that if it wasn’t for what you called “Close scrutiny of Israeli actions”, and if it was left to the extremist Jews, probably we would’ve seen a lot worse conditions close to annihilation.
I don’t see Israel giving up on “greater Isreal” anywhere near Palestinians inside inhumane refugee camps giving up on their homes and hopes! Jews in Iraq didn’t give up their homes to live in refugee camps and in the worst conditions, they left (forced to leave) into a better situation, they even left to what they consider their historical home! “let’s stay away from hyperbole…shall we?”
What did you exactly expect Gaza would turn into after decades of occupation, poverty, and humiliation? You leave it over a night and strangle the citizens inside with sanctions and starvation, but then you ask them to act as if they’re in heaven, of course they share a lot of responsibility for the current situation, but to summarize the situation like you did is absolutely insulting and inaccurate!
“What has terrorism, rejectionism and violence, the central (not sole) methodolgy of the Palestinian movement gained for the Palestinian people?”
I too have no interest in debate, let’s leave it up to here, probably I’ll elaborate my views in further posts. But for the meanwhile, let’s agree on that we’re all for a solution, if we decide to live, somethings must be put behind, otherwise, we shall continue to fight/debate until some of us literally vanquish the other!
Omar…
Yes…I think the only point we agree on is that we need a solution…everything else I disagree with.
And no…I really was not being emotional…I have been through this debate since long before you were born…so I usually don’t get worked up about it.
But I know the routine and we will slip into these viewpoints…pretty hard to avoid because it is one part of moving towards a solution…
Problem is…each side feels they have done “everything” while the other side has betrayed them…
Hard place to start.
WRONG, Central Africa is, not Darfur. Unless you think that several million dead blackies killed by other blackies don’t matter. Isn’t that the usual stance or are people all uppity because it’s the Moooslims/Eeeerabs who are killing in Darfur?
Jina-
Well good day! I had been thinking about you…somebody had sent me a series of pics. of the seal slaughter in Canada the other day.
But I do agree with you…when blacks kill blacks it doesn’t get much attention…
All uppity? Well…it is a different issue when Muslims get pretty beserk about non-Muslims killing Muslims…but seem to give a hoot when Muslims kill Muslims…
But what the hell…
Darfur is about being poor and black. Arabs, Asians, Americans, Europeans have a lower priority about black people, and Africa in general. In a few words, we are all showing our racism by our prioritizing of Darfur so far down the list. Don’t expect any business, and the media when you speak of it as a business, at least in the US, don7t expect it to lead , it follows the largest market. Most of Americans show their racist part of themselves on this issue. So the media will follow our majority in its racist priorities. But when you speak of individual journalists, its a different matter.
Esra’a this is not true. and I proved it on a previous posting about this topic. Would you like me to again cite the examples I used?
Endo-
You are only partially correct. I am on the board of an organization that advocates for Darfur. I set up conferences etc. Anyhow…I have approached major African American organizations to see if they would be interested in speakers etc…
Never a response
Trust me Endo…if that were Brits or Americans over there killing Darfurians, the whole world would be screaming.
We tend wake up when people we hate are up to stuff.
Dear Friends,Hi,
Thank you so much for your tireless outstanding. Please excuse me for not being in touch for a while. But believe me you are all in my mind. I was admired by your commitment and transparency when discussing such important issues. In fact I missed you guys during Doha/Qatar Forum. And I realized that we still have a long way to go to resolve our complicated issues dividing us. However,It seems to be a real challenge that this world could/should be a better place to live in the future unless our Leaders change their haterd atitudes,and stop their domenant polices against their own nations and others..
Stay well and Keep us a good work.
M.Yahya.
Omar-
“Jews in Iraq didn’t give up their homes to live in refugee camps and in the worst conditions, they left (forced to leave) into a better situation”
That statement is utterly incorrect…My wife is Iraqi…her parents and siblings were forced out of two beautiful homes, and a thriving business…they were allowed $50.00 and the Iraqi government stole the rest…my wife was born in a tent city and ultimately a tiny 2-bedroom apartment with 7 people sharing it ( and when I was there it was 8). They faced a rather harsh reality of war, major shortages, overcrowding and, of course, on-going terrorism…in those days mostly the fedayeen from Egypt.
Do you really think that Israel was some kind of paradise with rich Jews in Mercedes handing out $100.00 bills for all the fatcats to light their nargila’s with?
So I just can’t let that kind of myth be perpetuated without a response.
To add to Howie’s response, my mother’s family also came to Israel in the early days and they faced rations, lack of food and hardship (my mother’s favorite story is one where my grandmother managed to find/get two apples for their family of five to share, and my mother found them prior to dinnertime and ate both, getting in a whole mess of trouble.)
Trust me, Israel was not a wealthy society and those expelled from Arab countries here they had been happy and successful lived in hard conditions after having their possessions taken away from them. The difference, for them, is that the government had no vested political interest in keeping these people living in refugee conditions. Israel has always invested in social services, universities, and public works projects that provide opportunities and a better life.
But as Howie points out, please do not assume that the refugees from Arab lands, or all of the immigrants from any other part of the world, who arrived in Israel during that period had better lives than the ones they left. Whatever you may think of government policies toward the Palestinians, I ask you to consider that in terms of settling immigrants (and refugees) and providing a productive infrastructure, the country has done well in relation to its neighbors.
And, welcome Omar! Your first posts have already driven some lively discussion. I look forward to more thought-provoking posts!