Hezbollah Sends a Different Message

published by Palestine Chronicle, www.palestinechronicle.com

By Ali Alarabi

Last Wednesday prisoners exchange between Hezbollah and Israel in which Israel got the remains of the two soldiers whom Hezbollah snatched from their military jeep in a cross border raid that aimed to eventually swap them with Samir Kuntar, who has been languishing in Israel jails for thirty years. Samir Kuntar, now forty-eight years old, participated in daring military operation of the Palestine Liberation front, whose purpose was, according to reports, to capture Israelis to exchange them with Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

For most Americans, Israel is a little country, with an image of being an oasis of democracy and sunshine surrounded by sea of bloodthirsty evil Arabs who are out to squeeze life out of it. If they can.

For this sea of Arabs, however, it is the other way around, ever since Jewish immigrants started coming by the boat load to the shores of Yafa and Haifa of what was then Palestine, Israel has been holding the Arabs by the throat dealing them fantastical defeats humiliating them at every round and at every battle.

The exchange of prisoners and soldiers’ remains between Hezbollah and Israel, last Wednesday though not the first, was by all account the first time ever the entire Arab Nation, from the Atlantic ocean to the Arab Gulf felt a sense of vindication and a measure of justice while the Israeli felt the bitter taste of their own medicine, at least for once.

‘Gone are the days of defeats” said the ever popular charismatic Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah to a million plus crowd gathered in Beirut to see the freed prisoners and to tens of millions more of Arabs who watched the beaming Nasrallah hugging=2 0the former prisoners and greet them before he disappeared to give a speech via video conference.

The jubilant Lebanese headed by president Michel Suliman and the entire Lebanese political class gave Samir Kuntar and four other Hezbollah fighters captured by Israel an electrifying heroes welcome.

For the rest of the Arab World, Hezbollah is viewed as a highly efficient organization with a military wing that perhaps, from a military point of view, is the best small fighting force in the world today, can bring them a victory over an enemy that had been the source of their torment for the past 60 years.

What Arabs were witnessing on TV screens, scenes they were unfamiliar with in that for the first time, victory celebrations and the return of their prisoners and the bodies of almost two hundred of former fighters.

In Israel the scene was a stark contrast to the victory parades in Lebanon. Israel felt a rude awakening, perhaps for the first time in which Israel does not hold a victory parade after one of its wars. The Israeli leaders felt a specially humiliating defeat in releasing their longest held prize, Samir Kuntar who was sentenced to multiple life times of 542 years, and whose release required the signature and the pardon of Shimon Perez the president of the country and the father of Israel’s nuclear bomb.

What Hezbollah did was remarkable by all accounts. In the year 2000 it succeeded in driving Israel out of Lebanon; it held several prisoners swaps with Israel that resulted in releasing its prisoners and several hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and withstood a relentless s bo mbardment of Beirut in 2006 to force it to give up its Israeli soldiers.

To put this in perspective; Egypt the regional heavy weight and who signed a peace tre aty with Israel in 1979 did not bother to claim or investigate the fate of thousands of its missing soldiers during the past wars with Israel, some of them are still buried in secret cemeteries called the “cemeteries of numbers” because Israel put only numbers on the graves without names or nationality or any other markers.

Jordan is another country that signed a peace treaty with Israel still has 26 of its citizens and soldiers held prisoners in Israeli jails some of them are Jordanian soldiers who were captured in 1967 war. The Jordanian government is still not making any real efforts to get its prisoners release or claim the bodies of its fallen soldiers. Israel is also holding 11500 Palestinian prisoners, one Saudi man, several Syrians and Yemenis and other Arabs in i ts jails .

Lebanon, for its part, the smallest country bordering Israel, and the weakest one and without a functional army, was able at achieve feats through Hezbollah that no Arab country as powerful as Egypt or as rich as Saudi Arabia was able to achieve.

The message that Hezbollah is sending here is that it liberated its land from the Israeli grip; it got back its prisoners and the remains of their soldiers without dealing directly with Israel or sign a peace treaty with Israel. As far as the other Arab countries that have diplomatic, open and secret ties with Israel, their peace resulted in Israel still occupies Arab lands and continues to hold thousands of Arab prisoners.

Targeting Sudan's president won't help

published by the Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted on Tue, Jul. 15, 2008

Ali Alarabi

The possible indictment of Sudan President Omar al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court (ICC) comes as a dangerous and unhelpful development on the issue of Darfur and the unfortunate victims in that troubled region of Sudan.

The issue of Darfur is a political one involving militant groups that use violence to fight a legitimate government over perceived injustices. The issue is not supposed to be resolved through a criminal indictment of a head of state, but rather through political reconciliation between the state and the groups that fight it.

Indeed, there are legal questions with regards to the legality of the indictment and a possible international arrest warrant against Bashir. One question is whether Bashir is entitled to immunity.

The fact that Sudan is not a signatory to the Rome Statute that established the ICC raises the question of whether this statute can bind only states that are a party to it and not those that are not, such as the United Sates. Another question is whether U.N. Security Council resolution 1593, which referred this case to the ICC, can imply the removal of a sitting head of state.

Aside from the humanitarian crises that arose out of this conflict, we must not forget that Sudan, the state, is entitled to preserve its geographical integrity and prevent any party, domestic or international, from breaking up the country through armed struggle.

In the United States, hundreds of thousands of Americans died in a civil war waged by the federal government against one of its regions in order to preserve the unity of the country and prevent its dismemberment. Even today, the United States government - or any government, for that matter - would not let any state or group simply split or break away from the country.

International law, however, appears to be aimed at punishing weak and third-world countries if they are deemed as misbehaving according to the standards of Western powers.

As this issue demonstrates, international law is designed to preserve the interests of the big powers against small, helpless nations.

Sudan is perceived as not playing by the rules set forth by the Western powers when it comes to its energy supplies, its stand on the Arab-Israeli conflict, and its position on Iraq.

Treated differently is Israel, a country that violates international law by continuing its occupation of Palestinian and other Arab lands. It has unilaterally declared Jerusalem as its capital even though international law clearly states that Jerusalem is an occupied city and therefore cannot be declared an integral part of Israel or have its geography or demographics changed by building Jewish-only settlements.

Furthermore, when it comes to the wall Israel is building on occupied territories, international law sided with the Palestinian legal argument and declared the wall illegal. Israel simply ignored the ruling, and no international body, no country, is willing to do anything about it.

There are also legal arguments, as well as moral ones, against those responsible for the invasion and occupation of Iraq, a country that did not attack or threaten the United States. Thousands of Iraqis were killed as a result of this war. In addition, millions were displaced or became refugees. So we see that Western powers can get away with virtually anything for political considerations, but poor nations must bear the full brunt of the law.

That said, Bashir should do more to help his country to come out of this ugly war and bring Darfur and its tribes back to the fold of Sudan on equal footing with a peaceful resolution to this tragic conflict. But with this threat of indictment, the international community is exacerbating the problem and making matters even worse, especially for all of the innocent victims in Sudan.

1948

In May of 1948, Jews, later Israelis, in Palestine and around the world rejoiced at the proclamation of themselves - a new country in Palestine. They called it Israel.

Palestinians mourned. Fate had dealt them a stunning blow, their time had stood still, and life was no more. Palestinians watched helplessly as their country disappeared from the world stage and was replaced by another called “ Israel”. A new people with strange faces, strange languages, who came by the boat load from the shores of Europe to set foot on their land and claim the emptied homes as well as take away their orchards and olive trees.

In 2008, it has been sixty years since that fateful day in May when Palestinians suddenly found themselves strangers in their own land, strangers in the desert, refugees in hostile Arab lands, people without home, without a county.

In 1948 Palestinians were forced to pack whatever they could. Some did not have the chance, for they were cut down before they were able to flee the incoming terror and death.

Those who survived the onslaught left behind homes guarded only by their treasured ancient olive trees that witnessed their misfortunes.

Living a life in exile, in miserable refugee camps, in tent cities, subjected to cruelty and humiliation at the hands of their Arab brethrens. They were treated little better than animals, often times as suspects, as foreigners readily available to be sacrificed or deported to some desolate location; and in many cases simply killed off. Palestinians, however, lived on.

The world had failed the Palestinian people, While Israel and its people are treated as the legitimate owners of the land, received and welcomed in world’s capitals, but more painfully in Arab capitals. Palestinians are treated like outcasts that should be caged, and quartered in ghettos in hostile landscapes.

In 1948 Palestine was lost without a real fight.Five Arab Armies said to have wanted to liberate Palestine from the gripping hands of the Jewish Militias. Contrary to Israelis myths of heroic victory of biblical proportions over six massive armies; the combined Arab forces were no more than 20,000 soldiers. None of those armies had an air force or tanks to fight with. Lebanon, the supposed sixth Arab country, did not fight or send anything across the border. Jewish militias on the other hand totaled over 60,000 soldiers who received superior training in European and American armies, were equipped with top of the line weaponry, trained pilots and a lethal air force.

The same Arab defeat happened all over again in 1967. This time around, Palestine was swallowed whole, and yet again, without a real fight.



Betrayed, the Palestinians were the real losers in all of these wars. Their country was robbed in broad daylight, without a fight. Their society was destroyed and their institutions lay in ruins, and now they had to be content to live at the mercy of this government or that, or receiving hand outs and charity, or to be in prison and murdered in Israeli prisons.

In 2008 Palestinians in Gaza cannot leave that strip of poverty and misery without a gesture of mercy from the ruler of Cairo, or the strange man sitting Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. In Lebanon, the Lebanese government outlaws the Palestinian right to work in the country. The government,instituted Nazi-like laws that prohibit Palestinians refugees from working in 60 professions such as teachers, doctors or engineers. Palestinians carry no IDs, only some pale document that state their status as Refugees that live on the margin of that society in a ghetto with open sewers and no running water.
In Iraq,extremist Shia militias would kill any Palestinian on site upon discovering that he was “ one of them” meaning a Palestinian. Palestinians there carry no identity card; they carry their identity in their hearts.

tormented and murdered wholesale and in detail by their enemies, such atrocities however, did not lessen or succeed in erasing the memory of the homeland from the heart of every living Palestinian refugee, with or without an identity card. Until return, Palestinians are not going away, nor will they simply be content to disappear from existence, for every Palestinian, his existence depends on his resistance.

Palestinians in Iraq;life on edge

Published by AlArab newspaper, London, UK.

http://english.alarabonline.org/display.asp?fname=2008\04\04-08\zopinionz\960.htm


By Ali Alarabi

The recent gruesome murder of Palestinian female doctor, Layla Ali Taha and her young daughter in Baghdad, this past Friday (4/5/2008)at the hands of Shia death squads, who murdered them in cold blood hacking them with kitchen knives then burning their bodies into charred remains shows not only the grave danger Palestinian face in Iraq, but it also shows a trend of a slow but simmering religious persecution and extermination of Palestinian Arabs at the hands of Iraqi Shias supported by Iran.


According to my Shia Iraqi sources,over 260 Palestinian were murdered in Iraq, in the past five years, at the hands of the Shia government soldiers and religious militias many of those victims were children and women. Among those killed was Shiekh Tawfiq Abdel Khaliq one of the most respected and honorable local Palestinian Imams, who happened to be traveling to an area of Baghdad and was stopped by a checkpoint manned by government shia soldiers and upon learning that he was a Palestinian, he was killed in cold blood.

Palestinians are being targeted because they are mainstream Muslims, they are not Shias and they are not Iraqis. Shia militias, receiving religious blessing from their Ayatollahs and supported by Iran military and financially, are orchestrating a campaign of murder and genocide against the helpless Palestinian refugees.

Shias extremists hold that those Palestinian refugees whose numbers were less than 25000 before the war, were living better than the entire 30 million Iraqis and that they were Saddam’s spoiled cronies and lived better life style while ordinary Iraqis starved.

The truth however is anything but that. Palestinians never had it better than any average Iraqi, true that under saddam they were not persecuted simply because they kept to themselves, and did not intervene in politics, for they were not Iraqi citizens to begin with despite living there for generations.

Palestinian refugees in Iraq lived in a government built system of buildings, a Ghetto that consists of 16 huge old elongated buildings, each building has 4 entrances, and each entrance has three floors and each floor has 4 apartments. That puts number of apartments in each building to 48 apartments and the grand total of apartments in the whole system would be 768 apartments all belong to the government. By law, Palestinians cannot own a property in Iraq, not today under Shia rule, not under Saddam and not before that.

Despite living in Iraq for generations, the only documentation they had was a government issued ID stamped with the word “ Palestinian” and sometimes issued travel documents if they needed to travel.

( Palestinian family in housing unit in Baladiyat)

Caging the Palestinians in this ghetto, in the Baladiyat area is not an indication of a community that lived the life of riches and leisure while Iraqis starved to death so claim the Shia Iraqis and several of their holy Ayatollahs. The Ghetto consists of small apartments and shacks built in buildings courtyards and on rooftops, in order to accommodate natural growth. Any visitor to the Baladiyat area would not see wide tree-lined boulevards filled with mansions or nice villas for the Palestinians to live in.

The Palestinians true crime is that they are Arabs and more, they are Muslims in a country that has been converted into an exclusively Shia country and looks more Iranian than Arab.

That said, however, there are many patriotic Shia Arabs whose identity is Arab and Muslim in the larger sense of word ,and who are committed to the betterment of their country away from the sectarian and mini religious wars simmering under and above the surface,which if persisted will doom the modern country of Iraq in a state of permanent disaster.

Iranians in Najaf and Karbala, Basra, and Baghdad already number in the millions according to Iraqi reports. Iranians live in Iraq freely without noticing any difference between Tehran and Baghdad or Karbala or Najaf. Persian has become a dominant language in Basra and Najaf and other southern cities. Iraqi Shia Arabs feel more kinship and closer to Iran in terms of their religion and belief system than to other Arabs.

As for Palestinians, the key to survive and to avoid an agonizing death at the hands Shia death squads is to never show any traces of Palestinian accent for it will for sure make them marked for death. Speaking Arabic in pure Iraqi Baghdadi accent is one way to survive on a day-by-day basis.

Another way to survive is not to venture outside the Ghetto unless it is absolutely necessary. The Ghetto has its own small business, doctors and other basic services needed to maintain a meager but precious existence. The local mosque, however, was not spared from Shia militias attempts to either burn it to the ground or from firing their guns inside it.

But for older Palestinians of the original generation that made Iraq home after 1948, perfecting an Iraqi accent could be a tricky adventure, for they still retain traces of their accents of villages and town in Palestinian cities they fled some sixty years ago such as Haifa, and Yafa. Luckily however, those older Palestinians who speak a Palestinian flavored Iraqi accent can be mistaken of being Iraqis from the northern city of Mosul, a city that looks and feels closer to greater Syria and its accent sounds closer to the Shami Arabic accent.

Most Palestinian professionals, doctors, lawyers, engineers and others have managed to leave the country by paying their way out, the same trend goes for Iraqi educated class. Iraq has seen most of its professional class especially doctors and scientists either killed off or fled the country forever.

Today, Palestinians numbers in Iraq had shrunk into 14000 thousands, almost half of what it was before the war. 2000 thousands of those are living in camp of Al-Waleed camp in the desert between Iraq, Jordan and Syria. No Arab country is willing to admit those hapless refugees or assist them. They are stranded in the desert under the care of UN higher commission for refugees and an Italian humanitarian agency, which work to arrange medical treatment for sick Palestinian children and place them along with their families in European countries that are willing to take them. Another 300 Palestinian refugees were taken in by Syria and placed in the middle of the desert in camp in the Hasakah province. Brazil had already accepted some of those refugees, and Chile also agreed to take a number of them. The only Arab country agreed to accept the Palestinian refugees is Sudan.

For Palestinians, to live in the Arab world, is to live a schizophrenic life style. Palestinians have to get accustomed to Arab governments and leaders rhetoric and speeches with words like “We support our Palestinian brothers” “ Israel is the enemy” long live free Arab Palestine” and death to Israel” the reality for Palestinians however is that they are the only ones who are doing the dying, thrown in the middle of desert, thrown in Arab government jails, getting killed, burnt to death, or hacked to pieces by the same “ brothers” who were chanting long live Palestine in the yesteryear.

Even Iranian president Ahmadi Najad whose militant pronouncements against Israel threatening her of death and destructions, rings hollow giving that only Palestinians are being killed and destroyed with his money and weapons on his behalf at the hands of his henchmen and subordinates in Iraq.
For those Palestinians in Iraq, life has been suspended and can only resume in another, more peaceful land.

(Ali Alarabi is an award winning journalist and columnist. He can be reached at alialarabi1@aol.com

The murder of Palestinians by Iraqi Shia

Palestinian Doctor Layla Ali Taha and her young daughter were brutally killed yesterday, Thursday April/3/2008 by Shia death squads in their apartment in Zayounah area of Baghdad.

Dr. Layla and her daughter were attacked, stabbed and hacked with knives until death , then their attackers burned their bodies and the entire apartment.


This heinous crime comes as part of systematic extermination campaign of Palestinians by Shia death squads, who are supported by Iran, according to reports from Iraq.

Dr. Layla's and her young daughter charred remains will be brought to mosque for prayer and burial in the Baladiyat area om friday, the next day.

Palestinians in Iraq are facing more hardship and extreme danger because they are Palestinian Arabs and non Shia Iraqis. Palestinians who have been living in Iraq for over 60 years, since 1948,have never been allowed to own property, or have IDS, and have no Iraqi citizenship, or any other citizenship.

In the past 5 years, Palestinians were targeted by Shia militants and death squads for extermination and murder campaign designed to drive them out of the country.
Thousands of Palestinians have fled Iraq thus far, many were taken by Latin American countries, as far as Chile and Brazil, and some European countries. Arab countries have refused to admit those refugees in their countries, thus, perhaps inadvertently, helping Israel in keeping the Palestinian refugees as far as possible from the Middle East.

Over 260 Palestinians were murdered in the past five years by Iraqi shia death squads.

( The murder of dean of the Palestinian community in Iraq, Sheikh Tawfiq Abdel Khaliq,by Iraqi Shias on March,21/2006)



Palestinian in Iraq are living in mortal fear of being identified as Palestinians , and those who live outside the Palestinian ghetto, are being murdered when their neighbors identify them as Palestinians thus bringing Shia death squads to brutally kill them as in the case of Dr. Layla Taha.

Most of the remaining 14000 Palestinians who are trapped in Iraq are living in the Ghetto in the Baladiyat area in Baghdad , in addition to another 1000 Palestinian live in the city of Mosul.

Hillary Clinton and anti-Muslim Racism

http://english.alarabonline.org/display.asp?fname=2008\03\03-12\zopinionz\994.htm

Hillary Clinton and anti-Muslim racism By Ali Alarabi

I must say that when I heard the national media repeatedly playing out the words of Ohio talk show host, Bill Cunningham — emphasizing the name of Hussein in Obama’s name — not only was Cunningham coming across as an anti Muslim, bigoted racist, but also the national media seemed to be applauding him by playing him over and over again like a broken record. It is not a good feeling, to say the least, to think that the media had become complicit in spreading hatred and racial discrimination simply because someone has a “Muslim” middle name.
I also take it that Muslims with an obvious Muslim first or last names are viewed as suspects. This latest hatred campaign directed at Senator Barak Obama for having the middle name of “Hussien” represents a low point in American politics and shows some American politicians that have made it a career to demean and assault Muslim Americans and Muslims in general.


Senator Barack Obama is not a Muslims, he had said it loud and clear, even if he was, then what? Does it mean that he cannot run for office because of his faith or Middle name?
This whole debate about senator Obama’s roots started by ultra conservative racists and picked up by Senator Hillary Clinton campaign, or the other way around, or even a combined effort against Senator Obama, is a desperate attempt to stop senator Obama train in its tracks, and is racist, clan-easque and certainly un-American.
Muslim Americans are an integral part of the American society. They work hard, pay their taxes, serve in the military and die in the line of duty.
My question to those hate-mongers is: how much more American you need to be to prove you are a patriotic American, it looks like it will never be enough for those racists. That said however, Muslims should not change their ethnic names or their religion so as bigots accept them as Americans! This whole idea of attacking Americans based on their faith, color and race , though not new or unusual, is nonetheless preposterous.

Dirty tricks by senator Clinton campaign was reminiscent of discrimination African Americans, Asian and native Americans have experienced here at home and even after coming home from battles in past wars risking their lives as soldiers for this country, only to face racial discrimination and be rejected as equals by certain segments of the American society.
Many Muslims were offended by Mr.Cunningham and other racists talk show hosts who kept repeating the word ” Hussien” so as to appeal to his fellow racist-Americans in a bid to create a psychological connection between senator Obama’s roots, and terrorists. Senator Obama is an American first and foremost, his faith should be a private matter, regardless of what it is, and non of the business of those bigoted individuals.
Senator Clinton, on the other hand is equally guilty for spreading false rumors and innuendos about Senator Obama’s heritage and distributing a picture of him in a traditional African clothes that includes a turban. And what’s with that! Senator Clinton and her husband former president Bill Clinton have donned Chinese, African, and Asian clothing on their foreign travels. it is very respectful to other nations and their national cultures to try to show respect and understanding. The real reason however for distributing pictures like this is actually more sinister and defamatory. More, it is a form of character assassination because it appeals to the psychology of fear and it creates a mental imagery between Senator Obama wearing a traditional African turban and America’s enemies who wear turbans. Clinton’s subliminal message could be something like a vote for Obama is a vote for America’s enemies or that Obama is one of them, in other words he is an enemy!

Senator Clinton, or i should say the Clintons because it appears that Senator Obama is running against both Hillary and Bill should focus on the real issues that face Americans instead of reaching to her old bag of dirty tricks and thus turning her election campaign into no more than a smear campaign against not only senator Obama, but also against patriotic Americans who happened to be Muslims.


*Al-Arab, London -
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- Ali Alarabi is an Arab American writer and syndicated columnist. He can be reached at alialarabi1@aol.com
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*Al-Arab, London -
-zopinionz

Language and war in the Middle East

Published by AlARAB newspaper, London, 12/12/2007
Published in the Arab News, 12/19/2007. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. www.ArabNews.com

http://english.alarabonline.org/display.asp?fname=2007\12\12-16\zopinionz\960.htm




Language and war in the Middle East


By Ali Alarabi

Last November 26,President Bush signed an agreement with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Malki that will regulate the presence of US troops in Iraq as well as the presence of American military bases in that country. Signed through a secure video conferencing system the agreement or the “ declaration of principles” as it was termed, called for an “ enduring” US presence in Iraq. As to why the US administration used the word “ Enduring” is of no mystery. The word “ Enduring” which according to Oxford English dictionary means among other things “ Permanent” or “eternal,” or “forever” it is pretty and seemingly harmless word comparing to the more politically charged word like “ permanent” which if used instead it would likely raise a firestorm among certain segments of the Iraqi people. For Bush and for others, the battle over words is apparently as important as the battle over nations.

On this peculiar use of such word, Tom Engelhardt wrote in Tomdispatch, of the Nation Institute on June 7, 2007 that:
“For a while, to avoid the taint of that word “permanent,” the major American bases in Iraq were called “enduring camps” by the Pentagon.Five or six of them are simply massive, including Camp Victory, our military headquarters adjacent to Baghdad International Airport on the outskirts of the capital, Balad Air Base, north of Baghdad (which has air traffic to rival Chicago’s O’Hare), and al-Asad Air Base in the Western desert near the Syrian border. These are big enough to contain multiple bus routes, huge PXes, movie theaters, brand-name fast-food restaurants, and, in one case, even a miniature golf course.”

Along the lines of using friendly terms that would not irate the Iraqis and in order to paint a friendly or even a happy face on American bases in Iraq, the US military opted to change the names of all of its bases in Iraq into Iraqi-friendly names. Names, Iraqis could relate to, at least on the subconscious level, and hopefully would see it and get used to it as part of their new reality.

Old bases names such as Banzai became Al-adala (Justice), while Eagle became Al-Amal (hope), and Headhunter became Al-Istiqlal (independence), Highlander became Al-Izdehar (prosperity).

Iraq today is country cannibalizing itself on a daily diet of blood and gore, yet we hear US politicians and their Iraqi minions speak of “ democracy” in Iraq and “ liberation of Iraq (a country is liberated and occupied at the same time)

The US administration hailed the Iraqi election in 2005 as the first Iraqi “democratic election”. It is unclear however how can that be called a “ Democracy” in the real sense of the word when we have Kurds vote for Kurdish politicians and Shias vote for Shia politicians under strict orders from the Iranian Ayatollahs in Najaf, and Sunnis vote for Sunni Politicians. This was religious tribalism in the first order where each community voted for its religious tribe without any other consideration.

This would be the same if American Mormons voted for a Mormon presidential candidate, Protestant citizens voted for a protestant candidate and Catholics for a Catholic candidate. This would be unthinkable and certainly no one in America would call that a “ democracy”
But whether for public relations or political considerations, often times, political language is dressed up in neutral or positive terms in order to cover deceptive and manipulative goals.

Such is the case of Israel, a country notorious for making up friendly and innocent-sounding names and words for its brutal and inhumane policies. Israeli settlements for example, though illegal to start with, yet mushroomed to become cities on Palestinian lands. Settlement building and expansion is termed as “ natural growth”.

On the other hand any Palestinian who is building an additional room to his house, or on his property is termed “ illegal” or “ building without permit” which in any cases will not get even when he applies for it. The results are demolishing the Palestinians homes for being “ Illegal”
Another example is the word “ terrorist” a much-contested term and its application depends on one’s worldview. Palestinians who resists the Israeli occupation are automatically labeled as “ terrorists” regardless of their affiliations or motivations. As if Palestinians, for fear of being labeled as “terrorists”, should be thankful for the Israeli occupation!. Israeli violence against Palestinians is never termed as terrorism by the world media or international bodies, despite it terrorizes the Palestinians on a daily basis, but rather, the words used are : “ self defense”. A biased use of language.

Another example of language manipulation by Israel is its medieval-looking wall that Israel simply calls “ a fence” The word fence normally conjures up an almost romantic imagery of a country home surrounded by white picket fence, or small wire fence to either keep animals in or out or for beautification reasons.

The reality of this Israeli “ fence” however is anything but romantic. it is actually a massive system of deep trenches to prevent the movement of vehicles, a 27 foot high concrete walls, rings of barbed wires, high watch towers, massive gates for people and vehicles and is supposed to be 436 miles long when fully completed.

It is very hard to imagine such medieval system of high walls and deep trenches as an innocent ‘ fence” but some people believe such obvious deception.

Despite the manipulative use of language, the realities in the Middle East, however, are still ugly and bloody and it takes more than sugar-coated words to change them.

Ali Alarabi is an award winning columnist and managing editor of TheArabDesk.com. Copyright Arab Writers Group Syndicate.

Sweet talk at Annapolis

Published by the Omaha world-Herald

Sweet talk at Annapolis

By: Ali Alarabi

Although the speakers meeting in Annapolis were optimistic and almost encouraging in their speeches regarding bringing lasting peace to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, a peace, in the words of president Bush should usher the establishment of a viable Palestinian state side by side with Israel. President Bush speech, though was peppered with references to freedom of the Palestinian people and a “real” and “viable” Palestinian state, but in reality, however, Israel is making every effort to undermine the freedom of the Palestinian people and making the “reality and viability” of any future Palestinian state a virtual impossibility.


Ever since Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem in 1967, it had embarked on building illegal Jewish settlements on occupied lands, in itself a flagrant violation of international law, then populating those settlements with heavily armed Jewish militants, at the same time kept up pace to depopulate Palestinian cities from it residents through forced expulsions, economic hardship and military rule. Moving rapidly to change the nature of any possible future Palestinian state, Israel took over other arable lands and water resources from its Palestinians owners converting it to benefit illegal Jewish settlers.

Meanwhile the Israeli government is steadily with the building of the huge Spartan and medieval-looking wall, declared illegal by the International court, that is snaking around Palestinian towns and cities, galloping up Palestinian lands in its path and strangling Arab Jerusalem isolating it from the rest of Palestinian cities. Listening to president Bush in Annapolis, The most important aspect of his speech, however, was his wall-to-wall adaptation of the Israeli positions, as oppose to an independent American position in line with international laws and agreements, with regards to its settlement polices, the right of return of Palestinian refugees, and the conversion of Israel from a supposed democratic country for all of its citizens, Christians Muslims and Jews alike into an exclusively Jewish state.


The idea of Israel as ” Jewish homeland” for the Jewish people” as asserted by president Bush during his opening speech is a serious issue with serious implications especially that this idea if it were to be made a reality, would make over one million Arab citizens of Israel, Christians and Muslims an instant foreigners in their own native country.

Bush also used the term ” unauthorized outposts” in his speech and not illegal settlements, reflecting his acceptance of the presence of those settlements; illegal under international law on the very land he envisions it to be a Palestinian state. This position not only contradicts the president’s own vision but it also represents a departure from the traditional American position of opposing those illegal settlements.

Ehud Olmert on the other hand exploited the Annapolis gathering to extend Israel’s hand to Arab countries by sweet-talking them to open consulates and trade offices and normalize relations, regardless of the status of its occupation or the establishment of Palestine state. This, however, is the real goal of Israeli politicians from this meeting.

Negotiating with the Palestinians has been dragging on since 1993, and it has amounted to neither a Palestinian state, nor the promised prosperity nor a foreseeable end of occupation, but rather it led to increase of illegal settlements, 11000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, building a Spartan wall, an adamant refusal to admit its responsibility for the creation of Palestinian refugees problem and a complete destruction of the Palestinian economy.

Israeli politicians envision a normal diplomatic and trade relations with Arab countries while Palestinians will be reduced to a state chopped up into disjointed pieces dependent on Israel for its survival.
The only real thing Israel is offering the Palestinians, at this point, is more negotiations that eventually will drag on forever. Meanwhile it seems that there is no end in sight for its illegal settlements expansion, or its refusal to end its occupation.

Mahmoud Abbas, perhaps the most unpopular Palestinian leader ever, has nothing to offer the Israelis that he did not offer before. The problem however is that Abbas has lost control of Gaza to his arch rival Hamas, and his West Bank fiefdom is ravaged by Israeli check-points and military positions preventing the movement of people in and out of their homes, which left its economy shattered. For the Palestinian people A solution that does not include all of pre-1967 borders, and a just solution for the refugees which will offer them the right to return to their homes would be a hard sell, if not impossible to accept.


(Ali Alarabi is Arab American writer and journalist, he can be reached at: alialarabi1@aol.com. Copyright Arab Writers Group Syndicate, www.ArabWritersGroup.com.)

The origins of Turkey

(president Bush pardons May)


Ever since President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving day an official national holiday in his Thanksgiving proclamation in 1863, and Americans have been celebrating the day that marks the original pilgrims who in 1621 celebrated their first Thanksgiving by cooking the Turkey Bird, a truly native American bird.
Yesterday, President George W. Bush, in line with American presidential tradition spared the lives of the National Turkey and pardoned May and her alternate Flower declaring ” May they live the rest of their lives in blissful gobbling”

But how did this huge and colorful bird we call Turkey, came to be known as “Turkey” which is actually the name of a country.

Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis wrote in the New York Review of Books in 2003 that the reason Americans or “westerners” named the exotic bird they encountered in the new world “Turkey” because for one it was a strange, exotic and unknown bird to them, and since the Ottoman Empire at the time, the 17th century, was an unfamiliar and exotic landscape for most westerners especially that the Ottoman “Turkish” Sultan was also exotic looking with his colorful turban and attire. So according to Lewis analysis, the Western pilgrims named the exotic unknown bird they encountered “Turkey” because Turkey also represented an exotic unfamiliar place to them.




In everyday American lexicon, I noticed that when someone calling another a “ Turkey” often times it is said in ridicule by drawing on the original strangeness and exotic looks of the bird when Europeans settlers in America encountered it.

Interestingly, however, the Turks in their country Turkey, do not call the Turkey Turkey” but rather “ Hindi” from “ Hind” which is India, so it is called the Indian Bird.

The reason is that the Turks thought the Bird was originated in India.



In Arabic the bird is called the Ethiopian bird “ Deek Habash” (Deek is rooster or bird) because Ethiopia was called Abyssinia and Habash is Arabic for Abyssinia. One reason could be because Arabs thought the bird-originated Ethiopia, and another reason, which I think is more plausible, has to do with the black-feathered body of the bird itself. Ethiopia is a black African country which is right a cross the red sea from Arabia proper, the term Habash/Habashi is used alternately as being from Habasha (Ethiopia) and black.

In Egyptian Arabic the bird is called “ Deek Roumi” which means a Roman/western/European Bird. In line with Bernard Lewis analysis, the Egyptians associated the bird with the westerners or even the Roman Emperor because the Roman Emperor, much like his Ottoman Sultan counterpart, sported a crown and colorful attire.
In Iraq, though the bird in general called “ Habash’ but there are other local names for it like “ Ali Sheish” more commonly used by the Shias. “ Ali Sheish” is perhaps a corruption of the words “ Ala Sheish” which perhaps has to do with the way it is cooked on charcoal, like a Sheish kabob.

(Charelamn,Holy Roman Emperor)

In Macedonian Slavic the bird is called simply Misir which means “the Egyptian bird” (Misir, for male bird and Miserika for female) the Arabic word for Egypt is “Misir”

But what do they call this worldly bird in India?

By now I thought India would have the answer to this chase, but to my utter surprise, I found that the bird does not exist in India.
And I also found that there is no word for it in any of the Indic languages I researched!

I asked few Indians I know about it who told me that there is no Turkey or a name for it in India.

However, the common theme I found when digging the archeological etymology of the word “Turkey” was that in most European languages,in several variations, the Bird is always called or referred to as an Indian Bird or the bird from India or from the Indian city Calcutta.

The reason for that I think it had to do with the Greeks who originally called it “Indike ornitha” which means Indian Bird, which influenced many other European tongues afterward.

Therefore In polish its called “Indyk” while in Russian its “Indjuk”
while in Portuguese the bird is called “Peru” named after the country Peru.

The Chinese call the bird hu ji, in Chinese Mandrine, which roughly translates into “fire chicken”, while in Japanese it is called shichimenchoo, which means “the Seven-sided bird”


The common theme of the naming this bird in all languages and cultures has to do with they way people see and perceive the bird itself. This is of course a character in language itself and the way we human invent words and meanings to correspond with our cultures,perceptions and imagination.

Nonie Darwish. The native informant and Islamophobia

A recent weeklong campaign undertaken by anti-Arab, anti-Muslim racist David Horowitz in university campuses across the US designed to intimidate and terrorize students and professors who do not share Mr. Horowitz views when it comes to Israel. Horowitz created an organization called Campus Watch group against what he calls Islamo-facisim. Islamofacists are anyone, student or a professor, Muslim or Christian, Arab or not whom does not share Mr. Horowitz nationalist support for Israel or dare to criticize its aggressive policies.


Aided by equally militant supporters, Horowitz is engaging in slandering college professors and defame their characters, and creating a list of those who simply, unlike him, do not hold Israel above criticism, or above the law, or put Israeli interests ahead of American interests.
Among those recruited to participate in Mr. Horowitz hatred campaign is an Arab and a former Muslim woman, named Nonie Darwish. Darwish is an Egyptian who is going around the country defending Israel’s right to occupy Arab lands and kill Arabs. She is also speaking against Arab and Muslim Americans accusing them of supporting terrorism.


As if it’s not enough for Arab Americans and Muslims in this country to deal with bigots, racists and extremist pro-Israeli militants, they now have to deal with Nonie Darwish, who joins the racist cacophony in order to blemish the faith and culture of Arabs by falsely claiming Arabs and Muslims in America are about to or desire to “declare war” on America.
As ridiculous as this lie may sound, not surprisingly however, it finds fertile ground and receptive ears among those who has made it a career to tarnish Arab and Muslim Americans.

But you really have to be very stupid or just got off a spaceship from Mars to believe Darwish’s and Horowitz’s bucket of lies. To the usefulness of pro-Israeli militants, Nonie Darwish functions as the Native Informant who uses her knowledge of the Islamic faith and Arab culture to twist and bend the fact to serve her purposes.


As a supporter of Israel and founder of “ArabsforIsrael.com,” which I suspect she may be is the only member; Darwish’s stories do not measure up under close examination.
For one, she is biased, and one-sided. She claims on her web site that she wants peace and blessing for Israel and the Jewish people in “our neighborhood.” Ironically, her concept of a “neighborhood” is one cleansed of Arabs, Muslims and Christian Palestinians. In her view, only Jews deserve to live in peace, but not Arabs.
She also boasts that she renounced “Jihad” for America, which is the sub title of her latest propaganda book. But what Jihad did she renounce? And who asked her to declare this alleged “Jihad” as if a person can wake up in the morning and “declare Jihad”, a ridiculous notion, and malicious deception if you ask me.
Moreover, there are over 56 Muslim countries in the world and no Muslim country or its citizens have declared “Jihad” or a war against the United States. Only terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaida are fighting the United States and wrongly claiming their fight as “Jihad.”

The truth of the matter is that Nonie Darwish is a one alienated and driven former Muslim woman who is angry at her former country Egypt and angry with the Arab/Muslim culture. Her anger for whatever reasons drove her into the arms of Horowitz and other pro Israeli supporters. Therefore she is not motivated by principles but rather by anger, greed and her desire for revenge.
Despite Israel’s policies of building illegal Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands, and continuing its illegal occupation of Palestinians, Darwish sees no injustice or harm done to the Palestinian Christians and Muslims alike.


To put Darwish’s work in perspective, imagine if those Americans who are disillusioned with George Bush’s policies turned against their country and its citizens and went on to join the ranks of Al-Qaida and bin laden terrorist networks. It would be high treason to do so. Along those lines, I can only think of Adam Gadahn, an American citizen turned Al-Qaida spokesman, who betrayed his country and embraced the terrorist organization Al-Qaida that killed Americans and declared war on his country. For many of the Palestinian and Arab victims of Israeli violent occupation and aggression, Nonie Darwish is an Adam Gadahn.

Though in her web site she cites issues such as “honor killing” genital mutilations, and hate, as the primary reasons for her to work for Israeli interests. But it is very strange however and hard to understand what does honor killing or genital mutilations have to do with Peace or war with Israel?
Moreover, one must question Darwish’s motives for making Israel her primary country to defend, rather than America.

In light of Darwish’s behavior of turning against her country of birth, Egypt and the country her own father was killed defending, what if, one might ask, Nonie Darwish became disillusioned with her new country, America, or its justice system or culture? Would she betray her new country America just like she betrayed her old country Egypt!