The media in the Arab Muslim world is, for the most part, a swamp of victimhood, conspiracy theories, Jew-hatred, blood libels, delusional intellectuals, and fanatic Islamist genocidiers.
But every once in a while a whiff of truth slips past the gate keepers. The following article by Abdulateef Al-Mulhim, a retired commodore in the Saudi Royal Navy, and published in the Arab News, Saudi Arabia, is a remarkable piece of truth-telling. Mr. Al-Mulhim shatters the basic myth of the Arab Muslim world: that Israel is the source of all Muslim troubles, the primal enemy who must be destroyed.
In fact, so articulate is the core message of this article that it would never even be published in today's NY Times, for it is a direct repudiation of every word ever written by Thomas Friedman.
Alas, Seraphic Secret confesses that as soon as we read Mr. Al-Mulhim's article, we understood that this honest and courageous man has painted a huge "Kill Me" sign on his back.
A few excerpts:
Many people in the Arab world are beginning to ask many questions about the past, present, and future with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict. The hard question that no Arab national wants to ask is: What was the real cost of not recognizing Israel in 1948 and why didn't the Arab states spend their assets on education, health care and infrastructure instead of wars? But the hardest question that no Arab national wants to hear is whether Israel is the real enemy of the Arab world and the Arab people.
I decided to write this article after I saw photos and reports about a starving child in Yemen, a burned ancient Aleppo souk in Syria, the underdeveloped Sinai in Egypt, car bombs in Iraq and destroyed buildings in Libya. The photos and reports were shown on the Al-Arabiya network, which is the most watched and respected news outlet in the Middle East. The common thing among all that I saw is that the destruction and atrocities were not done by an outside enemy. So, the question now is: who is the real enemy of the Arab world?
The Arab world wasted hundreds of billions of dollars and lost tens of thousands of innocent lives fighting Israel. The Arab world has many enemies and Israel should have been at the bottom of the list. The Arab world had many dictators who used the Arab-Israeli conflict to suppress their own people. These dictators' atrocities against their own people are far worse than all the full-scale Arab-Israeli wars.
Now, with the never-ending Arab Spring, the Arab world has no time for Palestinians refugees or the Palestinian cause, because many Arabs are refugees themselves and under constant attacks from their own forces.
What happened to the Arabs' sworn enemy (Israel)? Israel now has the most advanced research facilities, top universities and advanced infrastructure. The life expectancy of the Palestinians living in Israel is far longer than many Arab states and they enjoy far better political and social freedom than many of their Arab brothers. Even the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza enjoy more political and social rights than some places in the Arab world. Now, it is time to stop the hatred and wars and start to create better living conditions for future Arab generations.
To read the entire article, please click here.
H/T Elder of Ziyon
