Israel
Builds for Nobel Prizes, Arabs Build for Suicide Bombers
by Farid
Ghadry ,
President of the Reform Party of
Syria
The news this week that two
Israeli scientists, in addition to an American, won the Nobel Prize in
chemistry, should be read with interest in the Arab world.
This win says a lot about the
state of affairs of the
Middle East
.
While
Israel
builds its future with Nobel laureates, the Arab world fills its future
with suicide bombers.
Ever since the inception of the
State of Israel, Arabs have had this romantic notion that through wars and
revenge we can return to our past glory.
Of course, they don’t tell us
which past they are referring to.
Was it when we were governed by
the Ottoman Empire or by
England
and
France
?
Or was it more like 1,300 years
ago when spears ruled the battleground?
Ever since 1967, Arabs from all
countries -- but especially
Syria
,
Jordan
,
Lebanon
, and
Egypt
-- have lived this fantasy that we can throw the Israelis to the sea.
With the 1973 near-win against
Israel
, Arabs concluded that one more loss is not reason enough to stop and
think.
One more loss, with so many lives
lost on both sides, is not enough for us to understand that the continued
struggle is destroying us from within.
Even after Anwar Sadat came to
understand the value of peace and co-existence, it seemed that more and
more of our energies were diverted toward destruction.
The downfall of the
Soviet Union
, the longtime ally of the Arab world, seemed to spur us to seek justice
with the barrel of a gun rather than through pragmatic understanding.
The Oslo Accords produced a
willing
Israel
and exposed fraudulent Palestinians. Again,
we watched as Arab leaders mounted a campaign of deceit to divert our
attention away from our own oppression. We, the obedient Arab sheep,
followed. We carried banners, objected, revolted and in the end, we
created a new cadre of school children with strong arms to throw stones
but without the education and discipline no brains to produce Nobel
prizes.
Ever since the Intifada, a term
that truly spurns our sense of justice, we have achieved the lowest point
of our self-esteem. Arab children that throw stones seem to feel an
invisible power that is not available to the children of the State of
Israel.
That power to revolt consequently
pre-disposes to a low self-esteem, which inevitably helps to build the
mentality of a suicide bomber.
Suicide bombers feel nothing,
understand little, and cannot see the future.
They go on automatic pilot with
the brain functioning as a guiding tool to self-destruct literally, as a
person and against the society that developed them. Suicide bombers
represent the lowest of our self-esteem as people of Arab descent.
We are in an Intifada, but it is
one that is seen through the eyes of the Israeli Nobel laureates.
We, as people of the
Middle East
, are dying and we cannot even feel it. We have reached the bottom and we
do not even know it.
Because of oppressive regimes that
give us no chance to think for ourselves, we have no hope, no future, and
certainly no Nobel prizes in science awaiting us.
What very few people know is that
an Intifada is also attributed to
the last movement by a human body upon death.
Could that be this understanding
of Intifada that is the true symbol of a struggle that should have ended
long ago? All Arabs are in an Intifada, still moving yet not truly alive
as citizens of the world.
Every time the Syrian Ba'athists
call for armed resistance, secretly support groups like Hezbollah and
Hamas, and propagandize Arab unity, we fall further and further into
oblivion. The funny thing is that very few Arabs care to understand why we
do not have Nobel laureates.
They blame it on Imperialism and
Zionism. In their minds, absent these two forces, we could be raking in
those Nobel prizes.
So while
Israel
survives Intifadas, wars, hate, and oppressive Arab rulers, we, the Arab
people, must wake-up.
If we pursue the same policies
that drove us to the lowest point in our history (Asr al-Inhitat or Era of
Despair as opposed to Asr al-Jahyliah or Era of Ignorance that preceded
Prophet Mohammed), only we lose.
If we listen to our rulers, we
will always be kneeling on the sideline watching Nobel prize winners
produced by the
Middle East
-- but not by us or for us.
Farid Ghadry is President of
the Reform Party of Syria which is based in Washington.
The author claims that the Syrian Reform Party rejects violence, and
supports regime-change as the only viable path forward for Syria,
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