Israel, like the USA, has never quite grasped the concepts of International Law (bombing hospitals is OK)

Israel-Gaza conflict: Israel’s ambassador to US ‘justifies bombing hospitals’ in Twitter Q and A

A Palestinian man looks at a house destroyed by Israeli Defense Forces during an overnight air strike in Gaza City

Ron Dermer also says Israel ‘cares more about Palestinian civilians in Gaza than Hamas [do]’

The Israeli ambassador to the US has held a question and answer session on Twitter in which he said Israel had “the right” to carry out missile strikes on hospitals if it suspects Hamas of using them as rocket launching sites.

Gaza health officials said today that the Palestinian death toll had risen to 222, with 1,670 wounded, and that the majority of these were civilians.

Writing on Twitter, Ron Dermer addressed this issue with his first answer, saying that Israel gave multiple warnings - “calls, texts, leaflets” – for people to evacuate military targets. “We're doing everything to keep civilians out of harm's way,” he said.

Yesterday saw Israel come in for particular criticism after the al-Wafa hospital, which cares for patients suffering from brain and spine trauma, was damaged by the Israeli air offensive.

Asked if Israel “has the right to defend itself by bombing hospitals”, Dermer said: “Actually, if you turn your hospital into a command post & missile launching site you do. But Israel hasn't.

“Israel cares more about Pal civilians in Gaza than Hamas,” he continued. “We try to get them out of harm’s way. They put them in harm's way.”

Photo: @AmbDermer responding to #AskDermer questions this morning. pic.twitter.com/glSpQFyqJ4
— Embassy of Israel (@IsraelinUSA) July 17, 2014

Embassy of Israel        ✔ @IsraelinUSA

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Photo: @AmbDermer responding to #AskDermer questions this morning. pic.twitter.com/glSpQFyqJ4

5:51 PM - 17 Jul 2014  Amb. Ron Dermer

Speaking to a user who asked when Israel will “stop violating international law”, the ambassador said: “You should learn the rules of war. No country in history has more rigorously upheld international law when its homeland under attack.”

And in a reference to the acronym WWJD (“what would Jesus do?”), the diplomat implied that it was highly unlikely the US would use less force than Israel has. “Ask yourself the WWAD question,” he wrote. “What would America do if 200+ millions were sitting in bomb shelters as rockets were fired?”
After fielding questions for around an hour, Dermer signed off: “Thanks everyone for those softballs. Looking forward to some even tougher questions next time.”

While the ambassador engaged some of Israel’s critics online, an attempt to secure a ceasefire in the tumultuous region was apparently ended today by a rocket fired from Gaza which, according to Israeli security officials, struck the city of Ashkelon.

Earlier, Israeli security forces said Palestinian militants fired at least three mortar shells from Gaza two hours after the humanitarian ceasefire agreed by both sides to allow Gaza residents to stock up on supplies went into effect.

It comes as both Israel's foreign minister and Hamas denied reports that a comprehensive truce agreement has been reached between Israel and Gaza, instead saying talks in Egypt were ongoing.

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The Amerrican War Crimes in Iraq, Libya, and Syria - What You Aren't Being Told

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Jews now calling for Gaza to be starved to death just as they actually did in the Ukrainian Holodomor

Posted on July 19, 2014 by michaellee2009 

Israeli officials call for cutting energy and food supplies to Gaza

Israeli columnists called for closing the Karm Abu Salem border crossing, the only commercial border crossing linking Gaza to the West Bank, so that no food, fuel or any other exports could reach the Gaza Strip.

Israeli officials yesterday renewed their calls for cutting food and electricity supplies to the Gaza Strip as a punitive measure against Hamas and the area’s residents.

Israel’s Deputy Defence Minister Danny Danon stressed that it is important to pressure Hamas and the people of Gaza through cutting off electricity and bombing Gaza’s power plant and destroying it completely.

In a radio interview yesterday Danon called on Netanyahu to cut off the electricity supplies that Israel provides to the power plant, and to prevent the flow of fuel, food and basic goods into Gaza.

Israeli columnists called for closing the Karm Abu Salem border crossing, the only commercial border crossing linking Gaza to the West Bank, so that no food, fuel or any other exports could reach the Gaza Strip.

Despite the Israeli assault on Gaza, Israel allows for a partial opening of the Karm Abu Salem crossing for the entry of goods from the West Bank into the Strip.

It also provides Gaza with 120 megawatts of electricity, which constitutes 25 per cent of the Strip’s needs in normal circumstances. Egypt provides Gaza with 28 megawatts, and the Gaza power plant currently generates approximately 60 megawatts.

The Gaza Strip goes through a major electricity crisis whenever the fuel supplies, used in generating electricity from the power plant, are delayed. Fuel supplies enter Gaza through the Karm Abu Salem border crossing.

Mohanned Akl, an economic researcher specialising in Israel’s economy, said that if the Israeli side of the Karm Abu Salem crossing gets closed for a week, the Gaza Strip will live in the dark due to the power cuts that will result from fuel shortage, and Gaza’s markets will be emptied of food and basic goods.

“The Israeli government has not yet agreed to the calls for closing the border crossing and cutting supplies, because implementing such calls would subject Israel to major international pressure, especially from the European Union,” Akl told the Anadolu new agency in a phone interview.

However he did not rule out that Israel might implement this suggestion. “Only if Israel is dealt a hard blow from the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip, and in my opinion this will not happen in the near future in light of talks about Palestinian-Turkish-Qatari meetings that seek to agree on a truce.”

Israel previously imposed an economic siege on the Gaza Strip and cut food, fuel and electricity supplies, which pushed Palestinians in Gaza to dig tunnels to Egypt to smuggle goods and fuel. This led to the emergence of the so-called tunnels economy, which collapsed last year after the Egyptian army destroyed and drowned the tunnels.

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NATO TERRORISTS IN A SHAMBLES AS SYRIAN ARMY ROLLS OVER THEM IN QALAMOON AND AL-MALEEHA

Ziad Fadel 

ON THE LEBANESE BORDER:  SyrPer can confirm over 50 terrorists killed yesterday and last night as the Syrian Army imposes fire control over the 2 crossings at Al-Musayyib and Al-Hamraa which connect Faleeta in Syria to its fat sister in ‘Arsaal across the border.  SAAF pounded the vermin all day yesterday with SAA artillery giving them no outlet.  The carcasses are being assessed at 2 areas freshly deloused at Qarn Al-Sayyid Salaama and Qarn Shu’bat Al-Hamraa. (In this context, “Qarn” means “summit”).  This is a major setback for the terrorists in Damascus.  At the latter, Monzer estimates dead rats at 80+ with many wounded.

Via Wikimapia: http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=34.090483&lon=36.570396&z=12&m=b

Qaarra and Al-Mushrifa:  Fighting here with no details available.

ZIBDEEN and JISREEN:  ISLAMIC ARMY LEADER, ZAHRAAN ‘ALLOOSH, TAKES A RIGHT UPPERCUT TRYING TO AID DYING RODENTS IN AL-MALEEHA.  CONFIRMED.

Yesterday, ‘Alloosh the Rat, made a big deal by appearing before some of his litter-mates and urging them on to fight for the besieged “comrades” in Al-Maleeha.  Two attempts from Zibdeen and Jisreen went wildly awry when SAA and NDF laid traps for them all along their march, much of it by foot.  Estimates are that over 65 of ‘Alloosh’s vultures are being cremated as I write.

Al-Maleeha:  Horrendous situation for the terrorists as their ammunition is running out.  North of the Tamico Pharmaceutical Complex, the SAA wiped these cockroaches out:

• Diyaab Qaassem
• Faarooq Bahjat
• ‘Abdul-Mu’een Al-`Annoof
• Khaleel Mahmoud
• Muhammad Al-Hussni
• ‘Aamer Al-Sirhaan

Another 12 could not be identified.

Al-Maleeha at the 2 rubber factories and the match factory, SAA surrounded and killed an undisclosed number of rodents.

Al-Maleeha South of the Al-Fath Mosque, at the Bakeries’ Street and School Complex, SAA continued to find nests of huddled vermin waiting for their savior to come.  No details about the fate of these groveling organisms.

Kafr Batnaa:  More of ‘Alloosh’s child molesters went down in a firefight:

• Khayri Hamaada
• Sadreddeen Khalaf
• ‘Awni Hussayn
• Muhammad Jaassem
• Mansoor ‘Ali-Bayk
• Haareth Safarjalaani

Another 11 could not be identified.  All were reportedly Syrian.

‘Aaliya Farms in Doumaa:  Zahraan ‘Allosh’s probable grave will be dug here, unless some kind soul cooks him in the purifying fires of Hell. ‘Alloosh is getting on the radar screen much more now given his renowned sloppiness.   More of his filthy insects were snuffed out yesterday.  No details.

Waadi ‘Ayn Turma:  16 confirmed dead rodents lie on the ground awaiting Charon’s boat to ferry them across the River Styx.  I have no names.

Jawbar:  7 rats killed and 7 wounded in a firefight.

Al-Zabadaani:  Nice environment these days for flushing out hiding criminals.  At the Taxi Station Quarter, the NDF with help from locals rousted some vultures and killed 4 of them.  No names.

_____________________________________

HAMA/IDLIB:  MORE NEWS ABOUT MORK:

Mork (Al-Mawrek):  Yesterday, a nest of terrorists belonging to the Brigade of the Martyrs of Haysh (yawn)was destroyed by SAA.

• Taareq ‘Abdullah A-Salaam
• Hassan Al-‘Anbari
• Saleem ‘Ubayd

Another 6 were not named and are considered foreigners.

IDLIB:

Fighting reported here: Kafr Najd, Bisaamis, Nahliyya, Jabal Al-Arba’een area, Abu Dhuhoor AB area.  More on Idlib later today. ZAF

__________________________________________________________

HOMS:  Terrorists took Thursday off from their usual routine of stealing, drug smuggling, car theft and rape:

Khirbat Saykhaa, Waadi Al-Kahf sw of Al-Burayj, Umm Sharshooh (a whole nest destroyed).

Read more 

• DAMASCUS: SYRIAN ARMY VICTORIES MOUNT; ALEPPO: RAGING BATTLES SPELL LOSSES FOR OBAMA’S RATS
• DR. ASSAD TAKES OATH AS PRESIDENT; BIDS FAREWELL TO ANOTHER VILLAIN
• IDLIB: SYRIAN ARMY CONQUERS MAIN HILL OVER MORK; RATS DIE IN DER’AH
  
  

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The Gaza Bombardment - What You're Not Being Told

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Isesrael's historical abuse still being hushed

Source

Moving, artistic tribute to the Bakr children,
murdered by Israel on Gaza's beach

As the ground invasion and wicked attack on Gaza intensifies, including the wilful massacre of four small boys - a fifth died later - on Gaza's beach, Alexei Sayle offers this most fitting analogy: 'Israel is the Jimmy Savile of nation states'.

The Zionist mindset conceals its own deep psychosis. But much else in Israel's disturbing development has come from learned behaviour. 

America, Israel's principal 'parent', has spoiled, protected and indulged this occupying, apartheid state now for over six decades, from defending its multiple violations at the UN, to its Congress handing over an unconditional $3billion a year 'allowance', while Israel struts around like a bragging coward killing, abusing and terrifying the neighbourhood.

Britain, likewise, has played the complicit role of silent, coddling mother, occasionally chiding the Israeli 'bad boy', but never willing to raise the alarm over its monster progeny. With its own part in a massive arms network, no worried 'we need to talk about Israel' realisation here. 

Israel has grown to watch and copy the rapacious parents, invading, occupying and mass-murdering for selfish, imperialist gain all across the globe.   

Little wonder we're seeing such naked abuse from this now fully-grown regime, through its violent birth act of purging Palestinians to its 'family model' of settler occupation; from its military chauvinism to its bleating plea that the world understand its 'plucky defensiveness' and 'victimhood'. 

Rather than deal with these posturing delusions, the West has once again turned on the real victims, telling Palestinians they've only themselves to blame. As Seumas Milne comments:

But instead of demanding a halt to Israel’s campaign of collective punishment against what is still illegally occupied territory, the western powers have blamed the victims for fighting back. If it weren’t for Hamas’s rockets fired out of Gaza’s giant holding pen, they insist, all of this bloodletting would end. “No country on earth would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders,” Barack Obama declared, echoed by a mostly pliant media. Perhaps it’s scarcely surprising that states which have themselves invaded and occupied a string of Arab and Muslim countries in the past decade should take the side of another occupier they fund and arm to the hilt.

Parentally approved, Israel displays the same disregard for those it has invaded, robbed and colonised, a brutality manifest in much of its citizenry, as it gloats and cheers above Sderot at the spectacle of Gazans being massacred.

And the target of their macabre celebrating is more of Gaza's tiny children, as in this harrowing report from Peter Beaumont:     

Salem Antez, 29, approached with a purple plastic bag and opened it, its contents terrible. "This is my son," he said and nothing else, tears tracking down his face. Mohammad, another family member explained, was two. The other dead were Abed Ali, 24, and Mohammad Ibrahim, 13.

But while a certain number of deaths are reported, the vast bulk of the over 1500 of Gaza's and the West Bank's murdered children remain peripheral and nameless, their terrorist killers and military methods still given due deference. 

And isn't it darkly apposite - given the BBC's own hierarchical harbouring of abusers - that Israel should be getting particular institutional protection from that same British state media?

Now clamouring to appear 'more balanced' after thousands protested its gross bias, Ali Abunimah has reminded the BBC of its still-running 'Israel responds' line, its utter distortion over the 'ceasefire issue' and other loaded narrative, saying: 'I would strongly recommend the BBC do some journalism'.

Ever keen to 'intervene', proclaiming their 'responsibility to protect' others, Israel's political patrons are massively responsible for failing to protect Palestinians. As serial abusers themselves, how could it be otherwise?      

But how can a supposedly 'impartial' media continue to shield and mitigate the actions of this craven bully? The answer, basically, lies in the establisment-serving acronym 'BBC', and an institutionally understood fear of overly-criticising Israel.  

As ex-BBC Middle East correspondent Tim Llewellyn confirms:

The BBC is now culturally and socially stuck in the Zionist frame. Whether this is fear of the Zionist lobby and its many friends in the three British political parties, sheer inbuilt prejudice, ignorance of the facts, history and nuances that every reporter, producer and editor should by now know, I am not sure. I suspect a combination of all three.

Such is the intimidating presence of the Israel lobby, and the apprehensions of senior BBC editors awaiting that call from the Israeli embassy.

How much longer can this dark compliance continue? The horror of those football-kicking kids being ruthlessly blown apart on Gaza's beach should be enough in itself to foster mass-media condemnation and real political action. Some worthy journalists are recording such graphic, terrible detail. But the core problem - the illegal occupation - and sheer historical scale of Israel's criminal abuse is still being dutifully hushed. 

---------------------------------------------------------- 

* Updated detail via Amena Saleem (Facebook):

The slaughter of Gaza's children, from morning till nightfall, on Friday 18th July:
Five-month-old baby Faris Juma al-Mahmoum was among those killed by 'heavy and indiscriminate' Israeli shelling in southern Gaza. Rizk Ahmad al-Hayk, aged 2, was killed by air strikes in Gaza City, Sarah Muhammad Bustan,13, was also killed in Gaza City. Three siblings, Ahmad Ismail Abu Musallam, aged 14, Walaa Ismail Abu Musallam, aged 13, and Muhammad Ismail Abu Musallam, aged 15, were killed... when their apartment building was shelled in northern Gaza. Eight members of the Abu Jrad family, including four children were killed when a missile struck their home in Beit Hanoun. The children were 6 month old Musa Abd al-Rahman, Haniyah Abd al-Rahman Abu Jrad, Samih Naim Abu Jrad and Ahlam Musa Abu Jrad. Imad and Qassim Alwan, both children, were killed as a result of artillery shelling in eastern Gaza City.

------------------------------------------------------------------

* Update:
Names of the victims of Israeli terror.

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Who stands behind the war on Gaza? A must watch

رفيق نصر الله _ الحدث / الجديد 19 07 2014

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Why the Israelis are repetitively violent

Friday, 18 July 2014,

By Lawrence Davidson

With the Israelis once more inflicting collective punishment in Gaza (a tactic which happens to constitute a war crime) it is time to consider the mindset behind their repeated violent and sadistic behaviour.

One way to do so is to listen to the rationalizations they use, also repeatedly, to justify their actions.

Rationalizations

Among the many rationalizations offered by Israeli leaders for their violent behaviour is the assertion that the Arabs, and Palestinians in particular, “only understand force”. If you do not use force against them they interpret its absence as a sign of weakness and this only encourages them to stand against the Zionist state.

This notion that the Arabs only understand force is one of the holdover stereotypes of a mostly, but obviously not completely, bygone age of imperialism.

Actually, when it comes to the Israelis, this persistent myth is mixed up with their own post-holocaust determination to “never again” react to a threat passively. They believe that sort of reaction is what killed millions of European Jews, and so it is no longer psychologically acceptable.

The only problem with these lines of thought is that they are seriously misleading – both in terms of Arab/Palestinian perceptions and European Jewish behaviour.

“The Palestinians only understand force” fallacy

Since coming into existence in 1948, Israel has attacked Palestinian individuals and infrastructure thousands of times. Israeli conventional wisdom would claim that this has been done in self-defence and to dissuade the Palestinians from future attacks.

The self-defence rationale is misleading because Israelis have, from the beginning, been acting offensively: most of what is now Israel and the occupied territories was taken violently and then ethnically cleansed of most of its Arab inhabitants with the ongoing goal of setting up a religiously exclusive state. Palestinian violence has always been a reaction to Israeli aggression.

The argument that harsh retaliation against Palestinian acts of resistance would dissuade them from further resistance (that is, the Palestinians “only understand force”) proved long ago to be false. It has never worked, and yet too many Israelis have clung tenaciously to this lie (a small minority, such as the Israeli journalist Gordon Levy, know the lie for what it is and bravely keep proclaiming the truth).

Why has the lie persisted so long? Well, there is the old adage that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is a form of insanity, but perhaps that is a bit too superficial for the case at hand.

One reason for Israel’s repetitive violence is that if they admit it is a tactical failure and desist, they might have to negotiate a genuine peace treaty with the Palestinians.

Many will immediately say that they have, repeatedly, tried to negotiate while always coming up against Palestinian intransigence. However, if one takes a close and objective look at these efforts at negotiation, one finds that they are facades or false fronts behind which we find Israeli intransigence. As the liberal Zionist M.J. Rosenberg has pointed out, the Israelis have never negotiated in good faith. When the Palestinians react to Israel’s bad faith, the Israelis break off negotiations and blame the Palestinians. Israel then returns to its pattern of repetitive violence.

Israelis bring chairs to a hilltop in Sderot, on the border with Gaza, to watch their air force strike Palestinian civilians, clapping and cheering when they hear the bomb blasts

In truth, negotiating in good faith means compromising Israel’s ambition to settle all of the land of Palestine, and that is something the hard-core Zionists will not do. As a consequence it is not the Israelis, but the Palestinians who have lacked a partner who will negotiate responsibly.

Another reason is that once Israel has raised several generations of citizens to believe that the Palestinians are implacable enemies who “only understand force”, it becomes politically difficult to change the message despite its elemental falseness.

The myth of the impossibility of negotiating with the Palestinians is believed by so many Israelis that if a politician started advocating a genuine compromise, he or she would be marginalized or worse. Remember the fate of Yitzhak Rabin, who almost certainly was not operating in wholehearted good faith toward the Palestinians, but was assassinated anyway because of the fear that he was moving in that direction.

Finally, there is the connection the Israelis make between giving up their violence and appearing weak. Yet given their overwhelming superiority in weaponry and the fact that its repeated use has destroyed Palestinian society without stopping Palestinian attacks, why be concerned that switching to non-violent tactics, such as good faith negotiating, would signal weakness?

My guess is that the Israelis aren’t really afraid that the Palestinians would interpret things this way. They are concerned that they themselves would feel that they would be replicating the alleged passivity of European Jews in the face of the Nazi onslaught.

The fear of showing weakness

In other words, the Israeli fear of showing weakness is not an attitude that references outside groups. It references only the Israeli concern for their own self-image. It is the fear of seeing themselves as akin to European Jews’ passively going to the gas chambers that stands as the greatest psychological barrier to an Israeli decision to halt their repetitive violence. As noted above, this is so despite the fact that their interpretation of European Jewish behaviour is historically misleading.

For hundreds of years Europe’s Jews faced discrimination and persecution that periodically turned violent. These episodes of violence, known as pogroms, were murderous but short-lived. The Jewish communities learned that if they kept their heads down and allowed the storm to wash over them, their casualties were less. They learned this not just by being passive, but by comparing such behaviour with the consequences of active resistance.

When in the 20th century Nazi anti-Semitism emerged, most of the Jewish leadership interpreted it as yet another episode of pogroms, and they reacted to it in the manner that history had taught them would result in the least harm. Of course, they were wrong. The Nazis were a qualitatively different sort of enemy. But the Jews of Europe only discovered this when it was too late. Still, there were plenty of episodes of active Jewish resistance, ranging from concentration camp revolts to the battle of the Warsaw ghetto.

Unfortunately, the Israelis and most other Zionists forget about this history and condemn Europe’s Jews for being shamefully passive in the face of mortal danger. Thus was born the slogan “never again”. This state of mind also encouraged the Zionists to see the Palestinians, and indeed all Arabs, as latter-day Nazis to be repeatedly vanquished with repetitive violence.

The Israelis would expel or kill a majority of the Palestinians left in their homeland if the world let them (and maybe over time it will). They would do so not only because it would clear the way for Jewish settlement of all of Palestine, but also because it would allow them to feel psychologically redeemed – redeemed from the allegedly sinful passivity displayed by the victims of the holocaust.

Consequences

The consequences of the Israeli state of mind are, of course, catastrophic – first and foremost for the Palestinians, who suffer death and destruction for their justified resistance to oppression. The Zionists see them as latter-day Nazis but in truth they resemble the resisters in the Warsaw ghetto. And, if that rings true, then who do the Israelis now resemble?

That point leads us to ask what are the consequences of Israeli behaviour for the Jews and Judaism? After all, Israel claims to represent world Jewry. The consequences have been, are, and will continue to be disastrous.

In relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict there are now three categories of Jews: (a) those who have publicly taken a stand opposing Israel’s behaviour, (b) those who publicly support Israel’s behaviour and its rationalizations, and (c) those who stand aside, try to ignore what is going on, and just carry on with their lives.

Whatever the people or situation, this last category is usually the largest. It is also the category that concerns me the most for, unbeknownst to many of these Jews, their wellbeing is being used falsely to justify the policies of a habitually violent state and its racist ambitions.

There are intimations that this largest group of Jews are becoming conscious of Israel’s crimes and this is a welcome and necessary beginning. The next question is what actions, if any, will consciousness bring?

ENDS

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Lines of the Game: The mass suicide of Sunnis and Shia

Volunteers loyal to Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, take positions during a military advance in areas under the control of Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), in the town of Samarra, in the province of Tikrit, on July 12, 2014.

By: Sami Kleib

Published Saturday, July 19, 2014

An Arab researcher can find dozens of studies, documents, and books on Israeli or Western plans to partition the Arab world. An Arab researcher can also consult history books to find clear examples on how successful those schemes were, with the most notable instance perhaps being Sykes-Picot and most recently, Sudan. One such book is Carnages: Les guerres secrètes des grandes puissances en Afrique by the very credible French author Pierre Péan, who sheds light on the workings of the Zionist lobby in the United States and Western countries ahead of the partition of Sudan.

Furthermore, Arabs mostly read material related to horoscopes, cooking, sex, or superficial apocryphal Islamic content concerned with interpreting dreams and so forth.

But the problem is that many Arabs do not read, as confirmed by The Cultural Development Report published by the Arab Thought Foundation. The report says that the average time Arab citizens spend reading each year is six minutes. Yes, six minutes, compared to 200 hours for European individuals. Furthermore, Arabs mostly read material related to horoscopes, cooking, sex, or superficial apocryphal Islamic content concerned with interpreting dreams and so forth. Profound, serious, and enlightening Islamic reading is almost absent. And in recent years, Sunni and Shia books accusing each sect of blasphemy and misguidance are becoming wide-spread.

The second problem is that the Arabs who do read mostly read books that reinforce their convictions and proscribe others’. It is sufficient to take a quick look at social media (Facebook and Twitter especially), to discover that most Islamic material quoted by this or that side serves to find ways to excommunicate, undermine, or eliminate opponents.

The third problem is that illiteracy figures among Arabs are disastrous. If this is added to the poor economic, medical, and social conditions and corruption, the combination is the equivalent of a red-carpet welcome for sectarian sedition, terrorism, and mutual exclusion.

Last year, the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) confirmed in a report than up to 100 million Arabs are illiterate. In other words, almost a third of the population of the Arab world cannot read or write. Interestingly, the highest percentage of illiteracy according to the report is in Egypt, affecting 17 million people, followed by Sudan, Algeria, Morocco, and Yemen. Illiteracy is particularly high among females for reasons that we all know, which feeds into higher birth rates.

As a result of all this, awareness suffers, unrest grows, and uprisings become haphazard. If one reads sociologist Emanuel Todd’s analysis of the Arab uprisings and other revolutions in the world, one will infer that successful revolutions take place where the birth rate is two or less per family. Todd’s explanation is that educated women have fewer children, and when women are sufficiently educated, they often seek to reform society.

The fourth problem is poverty. According to the World Bank office in Sana'a, for example, poverty affects about 55 percent of Yemenis. In Egypt, the head of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, Major General Abu Bakr al-Jundi, says that poverty affects more than 26 percent of the population. International statistics put these figures at much higher levels still.

In short, when we combine ignorance with illiteracy and poverty, we get restless societies that can be agitated in different directions. Indeed, their disenchantment has to have an outlet, and today, the natural outlet seems to be the complete intolerance toward others, so it is no wonder that sectarian strife is advancing.

This is a fertile environment for anyone wishing to sow sedition, including rival regional and international actors that have certain schemes and that have the wherewithal to push them forward.

The paradox here is that the Arab world is rich in natural resources. Oil is abundant in the Gulf, Algeria, and other nations. The Mediterranean basin is expected to be rich in hydrocarbons as well. The land is fertile and livestock is also abundant (before its partition, Sudan had 84 million hectares of arable land, of which it only exploited 19 ​​million hectares, in addition to 24 million hectares of pastures, 64 million hectares of forest, and more than 128 million heads of cattle, which would be enough to feed the entire Arab world).

In theory, the world needs to increase its food production by about 70 percent in the next three decades. Industries from China to Europe are always in need for oil resources like the ones present in the Arab world. Yet the world’s economic conditions require keeping the Arab world in a state of conflict, chaos, and apprehension to import more of the weapons the world makes. (One may read many international reports that confirm this, including the reliable reports published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)). Also recall that the Gulf nations are the world’s top importers of arms relative to their populations, with some deals exceeding $300 billion in value between 2011 and 2014.

Israel’s existence alone is no longer enough to cause conflict. Many Arab countries are no longer willing to fight Israel, or have signed peace treaties with it, or established ties with Israel away from the limelight. Therefore, other causes of conflict had to be invented. Today, there is no bigger story than Shia-Sunni strife. This is a long-term investment that can last for decades, and it cannot be resolved. It also prevents the Arabs from uniting, encircles Iran, and diverts attention away from Israel.

Shia and Sunnis can adduce hundreds of reasons and pretexts to justify battling each other. Some claim it is a fight with terrorism. Others say it is to prevent the expansion of Iran, the Persians, and the Safavids. A third segment claims that the battle is between a resistance project and a surrender project, and that strife was reinforced after the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Hezbollah’s victory against Israel. A fourth segment says the battle is to prevent foreign hegemony. A fifth segment still argues it is to prevent partitioning.

Indeed, their disenchantment has to have an outlet, and today, the natural outlet seems to be the complete intolerance toward others, so it is no wonder that sectarian strife is advancing.

All these arguments are debatable. What is certain is that all sides are mired in the mud of sectarian strife. What is certain is that the nation of Mohammad is in a state of infighting, which is not likely to stop anytime soon because many of the belligerents believe that their mission is divine, rather than political or military in nature.

But in divine warfare, each side would be defending its god, and each side would be seeking to fight until martyrdom, believing the reward would be eternity in paradise. In this warfare as well, each side takes joy in seeing the dead of the other side, walking between the corpses, and taking pictures of them that are then posted on social media sites – the same sites that were invented by the West while Muslims invent ways to kill other Muslims.

For all this the causes are many but the result is one: mass Islamic suicide of which no one will emerge unharmed, and suicide that paves the way for re-molding the Arab world by those who wrote and we did not read and in the manner they desire.

There is an established saying by the Prophet that states: If two Muslims meet with their swords, then the murderer and the victim shall both be in hell. Ultimately, there will be no solution for us except with serious rapprochement between Sunnis and Shia, no matter the costs and the pressures. This mass suicide must be stopped at all levels, political, religious, military, and social. Clerics must play the most prominent role, especially since the Arab left and its remnants had handed over the arena a long time ago to religious leaders or their followers. What remains of that left today does not do much more than writing to criticize, as though it is has had no responsibility whatsoever for the current situation of the Arab world, many parts of which were once under the left’s control.

This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

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