Syria is unraveling before our eyes and a deafening silence remains in much of the Arab world. Besides the ongoing finger pointing at Israel and the lame redirection from the thousands of slaughtered civilians on the ground, Arabs worldwide have remained virtually mum. There is no denying the Arab Spring has missed Syria all together.
Award-winning Palestinian activist Ray Hanania got it right in his recent article, Yalla Peace: It’s an ‘Arab Winter’ when it comes to Syria featured in the Jerusalem Post .
Hanania makes a number of valid points including how Syria has consistently regurgitated hatred for Israel while failing miserably at championing Palestinian rights.
To ever attain real peace, this double standard within the Arab world must not only be noted but addressed headon. See Hanania’s full article below:
The Arab world activists scream for Israel’s blood when it kills Arabs – and Israel has killed many Arabs, but those activists are silent when it comes to atrocities committed by Syria.
You may have noticed there is no Goldstone Report being proposed in the United Nations to investigate the massacre of civilians by the Syrian government.
In fact, many Arabs – mainly the professional activists and the extremists – are looking at Syria as if it is some kind of anomaly. Not an Arab Spring at all, but rather, an Arab Winter giving pro-Democracy pleas the cold shoulder.
Deep down, the Arab activists don’t want the spring to come to Syria. And for good reason.
The Arab world has turned its back on the pro-Democracy protesters in Syria who are being massacred by the Syrian regime.
More than 2,000 have been murdered.
Tens of thousands have been injured and thousands have been imprisoned.
The Arab world activists scream for Israel’s blood when it kills Arabs – and Israel has killed many Arabs, but those activists are silent when it comes to atrocities committed by Syria.
The silence is not only driven by the usual hypocritical politics of the activists, but by the “Holy Grail” of their hypocrisy, the Palestine conflict. It’s a hypocrisy based on political convenience that sees Egypt and Syria differently. Egypt was long ago compromised and its president Husni Mubarak is in shackles and awaiting trial.
The activists screamed loud in favor of Egypt’s Tahrir Square because Egypt was pro-Israel.
Syria, on the other hand, is at the frontline of the battle against Israel. It hosts the headquarters of Hamas and is a power behind Hezbollah, a group that issued a statement urging Arabs to give Syria and its president Bashar Assad a chance.
Syria is second only to Iran when it comes to screaming about Israel. Yet historically, Syria’s response to Israel has been the weakest of all.
Syria’s stance, which so closely reflects the empty rhetoric of the ineffective activists, is for public consumption only.
The Syrian Army, which often parades its hatred of Israel (and the United States), has collapsed repeatedly in defeat when facing the IDF.
So oppressing its own citizens is about all the Syrian Army can do, aside from occasionally brutalizing their neighboring Lebanese citizens too.
THE ARAB LEAGUE has proven to be equally worthless in the Arab Spring and in Syria’s Arab Winter. During a recent visit to Damascus, the head of the Arab League complained not about the massacre of innocent civilians, but rather the “foreign interference” in Syria’s domestic politics.
Like Arab activists for many years, Syria is wrapped in a quandary of self-oppression and dictatorship, the hallmark of Arab world politics.
Like the failed Arab activists, Syria’s only strategy has been to churn up hatred of Israel not to free Palestine or liberate Palestinian lands, but rather to distract their people from focusing on and speaking out against Arab world failures and brutality.
The Arab League and the Arab activists are weighing the imbalance of political interests. They fear that Syria’s collapse will only further weaken the spotlight that historically has been placed on Israel.
This failed Middle East policy is fueled by the inaction of the West, a West driven by an addiction to oil. Four NATO and Western countries profit from Syria’s crude oil, Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands.
They are hesitant to take any action that might undermine their profits.
Ironically, the Muslim nation that has the toughest stand against Syrian oppression is Turkey, once one of Syria’s closest allies. This week, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries criticized Syria, but they did so out of predictable selfish interests. Saudi Arabia has been battling with Syria for years over Lebanon.
AMERICAN ARABS reflect the hypocrisy of the Arab activists. Recently in Detroit, the publisher of a leading American Arab newspapers organized a rally for Syria that drew more than 400 people. The English- Arabic newspaper, of course, only reported on the rally in Arabic. It also launched a campaign attacking American Arabs who have been calling for action against Syria and compromise with Israel.
Khaled Salah, the spokesman for the Syria American Council which supports the pro-Democracy movement in Syria, said during my weekly radio interview show (www.RadioBaladi.com) that the pro-Democracy protesters have been giving their weekly protests names that reflect their exasperation with the hypocrisy of the Arab World and the Arab activists.
Two weeks ago, they called their protest “Your Silence is Killing Me,” referring to the failure of US President Barack Obama and the US Congress to take any substantive actions against the Syrian government.
Last week, they called their protests “Only God is With us” to reflect their isolation in the Arab World.
This week, maybe they should call their protest, “Why have the Arabs forsaken us?” The Arab activists and extremists have it all wrong. It is true that the Syrian dictatorship has been very anti-Israeli, but the truth is they have been very ineffective as champions of Palestinian rights. Imagine how effective a truly democratic Syria could be in fighting for Palestinian rights and pushing for peace? The Arab World can’t effectively champion Palestinian rights until they learn how to fight for the rights of their own people.
The Arab Spring has brought freedom closer for some, but for many like Syria it is still far off.
The Palestinians should be speaking out loudly in support of the Syrian people, even at the cost of losing the worthless empty rhetoric of the Syrian dictatorship.
But as long as the Arab activists manipulate the “Palestinian cause,” that wont likely happen.
The writer is an award-winning columnist and Palestinian activist.
www.hanania.com.
Great info and perspective. Thanks.