Firas Al-Atraqchi: The Arabs Are Dogs

The Arabs are dogs.

That's the latest finding from a series of seminars titled, "Arabs in the Twenty-first Century" held in Burma last week. Chaired by such sociologists and historians as Dr. Andrew Kemp, William Buthington and Rashid K. Al Rashad, the attendees reached an unanimous decision that perfectly conveys the history of the Arabs, particularly in lieu of their oppressed brethren around the world, and the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In a 20-page manifesto, the conferences support the general theme that Arabs from Morocco to the United Arab Emirates are lowly creatures, pitiful, and treacherous.

Before your so-called Arab pride (you most likely will hate the above if you are Arab, laugh or scoff if non-Arab) get the better of you and you pillage yourself with illustrious Arab profanities, let me tell you the above paragraph is a fabrication; a made-up garble of mumbo-jumbo.

What is not a fabrication, however, is the fact that Palestinians are being killed wholesale in Palestine, with the eyes of the world watching in disbelief. Bodies upon bodies are filling streets and town squares; women, children, old men, armed and unarmed. No matter. Most shot through the head. Some headless as tank fire tears their limbs. Some unidentifiable. Some lying in the streets, humiliated in life, no dignity in death.

Reports are festooning the internet bandwidth as American and European volunteers beseech their fellow citizens to take action. Studying in Ramallah, or volunteering in Bethlehem, these western nationals are sending emails and faxes, speaking out against the monstrosity that is Nazi Israel. They are demanding action be taken to prevent the widespread massacring of Palestinians. They are standing up for what they believe is right.

European nations are also taking steps to demand that Israel withdraw and implement last weekend's United Nations resolution 1402. No cigar, Israel is refusing to cooperate. Hell, killing Arabs hasn't been this much fun since, well ,since Egyptians POWs were handcuffed and executed in the Sinai in 1973.

Demonstrations are rocking most of Europe and as far away as China, Indonesia and Malaysia. Two states in Belgium (including Brussels) have severed diplomatic relations with Israel.

In the U.S., however, there is open condemnation of Palestinians and their President, Yasser Arafat. "Terrorists, every one of them, let's lynch them," the white trash of North America tell us. Who can blame them with the skewed media reporting they tune in to. CNN Talkback Live, an affront to the intellect of any viewer, berates Arab commentators when they literally beg the American public to think for themselves. Reminds one of the Napalm Death song, "Why Don't You Think For Yourself".

MSNBC's Chris Matthews is always mystified at how Arabs on his show can dare to lie when they say Arafat wants peace. Instead, cheesecake-faced Matthews prefers to jump into bed with the whore of all lies, Alon Pinkas, Israel's Consul-General in New York.

Then we have NBC, CBS, FOX and a bevy of others rush in 'experts' who understand the Middle East and fully support Israel. The fact that these 'experts' are Jewish, and often, Zionists, is ominously lost in the dialogue.

Take what happened today, for example. Will North American media report the Nobel Prize Committee's public regret for having handed Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres a Peace Prize in 1993? The BBC reported that Nobel Committee chairman Geir Lundestad "voiced the concern of several members that if Mr Arafat were to be killed as a result of Israeli actions, one Nobel laureate might in effect be said to have killed the other."

However, no one can really blame North American media. It is to be expected that the viewing public support Nazi Israel. One of those notorious polls (CNN/TIME) leads us to believe that 62 percent of the American public support Israeli actions in Palestine.

Blame does, nevertheless, fall on a few notorious, if not ruffian-like characters. While Arabs, both Muslim and Christian, are being slaughtered in Occupied Palestine, churches and mosques alike coming under diabolical attack, Arab governments have been still. We have not heard from King Abdullah of Jordan. Not a squeak from the Jordanian pipsqueak. A shame. It would do wonders for his height if he were to stand up and demand action, from the Arab League, the United Nations, NATO, whoever. Instead, he surreptitiously orders his police to viciously attack Palestinian demonstrators in Amman.

Egypt's President Mubarak is also missing in inaction. Anyone remember the song "Where Have All the Cowboy's Gone?". Although Mubarak has not made any official statement, his government has taken substantial steps to reduce its relations with Israel and he has sent two strongly-worded letters to U.S. President George Bush, we are told. Not enough.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah, who was so generous in offering Israel peace, is a little more stingy when it comes to offering the Palestinians support. Sitting on a large quandary of the world's oil supplies, he has taken no steps to threaten an oil boycott that could bring Israel, and the rest of the world, to heel. One wonders what he is really sitting on.

The Gulf governments of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates have said little to nothing. The Kuwaitis are still bent over repaying the U.S. for its "generosity" 12 years ago. It is unlikely they will say much. It's a wonder all newborn Kuwaitis aren't called George or Bush.

The North African Arab countries. Well, better less said.

The governments that have spoken out and dared to call for a more unified, aggressive position to combat Nazi Israel's aggression, are Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and non-Arab Iran. Funny as it may seem, these were the same governments given a good scolding by the White House two days ago for harbouring terrorists, and arming the Palestinians. Iraq and Iran have called on an oil boycott but no one is listening. So mute is the world that the U.S. is still considering attacking Iraq. Salivating, salivating.

Israel continues to defy international law and outcry. Arab governments continue to defy the will of their people.

Egyptians have raised the pride of the Arab people as they persist to demonstrate in the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, Mansoura, Minya and other Egyptian cities. Following Friday prayers, riot police savagely beat Egyptian demonstrators, inflicting heavy casualties among them.

The Lebanese, who have faced years of civil war, stood up and demanded action from Arab armies. Syrians have taken to the streets in fierce demonstrations as have the Iraqis, the Iranians, Indonesians, Turks and the Yemenis.

According to the all-news Al-Jazeerah network, Bahraini demonstrators hurled Molotov Cocktails in the direction of the U.S. Embassy in Manama after the U.S. Ambassador to Bahrain called for one minute of silence to mark Israeli deaths at an opening session of a Model United Nations forum in Bahrain University.

In Saudi Arabia, where demonstrations are banned, Saudi citizens took to the streets of Dhahran and Al-Qatif to voice their dissent at the humiliation of their governments, only to be beaten back by batons, tear gas and rubber bullets. The Saudis will not fire a bullet in the direction of Israel (nor a word of dissent, for that matter), but are only to happy to fire on their own people, beheading and exiling whomever they wish.

The time has come for the Arabs to make an important decision: will they allow their despotic governments to make dogs of them, or will they demand, and get, a role in the political process?

A heavy decision, indeed.

Palestine continues to suffer.

- Firas Al-Atraqchi is a Canadian journalist living on the Pacific Coast

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