In an article titled "The Arab Spring And The Israeli Enemy," published on the anniversary of the 1973 war between the Arabs and Israel, Saudi columnist and former Navy officer 'Abd Al-Latif Al-Mulhim wrote that the Arab world has squandered many lives and vast sums of money on fighting Israel, when its real enemy is its own dictators and its own backwardness, corruption, and ignorance. He said that now is time to stop the hatred and wars and start improving the lives of the Arabs, for the sake of future generations.
The following are excerpts from the article, which was published in the Saudi English-language daily Arab News.[1]
"Why Didn't The Arab States Spend Their Assets On Education, Health Care and Infrastructures Instead Of On Wars?"
"Thirty-nine years ago, on Oct. 6, 1973, the third major war between the Arabs and Israel broke out. The war lasted only 20 days. The two sides engaged in two other major wars, in 1948 and 1967. The 1967 war lasted only six days. These three wars were not the only Arab-Israel confrontations. From the period of 1948 and to this day, many confrontations have taken place. Some of them were small clashes and many of them were full-scale battles, but there were no major wars apart from the ones mentioned above.
"The Arab-Israeli conflict is the most complicated conflict the world has ever experienced. On the anniversary of the 1973 war between the Arabs and the Israelis, many people in the Arab world are beginning to ask many questions about the past, present and the future with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict. The questions [being asked] now are: What was the real cost of these wars to the Arab world and its people? And the harder question, which 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 infrastructures instead of on 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 souk in Aleppo, Syria; the underdeveloped Sinai [region] in Egypt; car bombs in Iraq, and the 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.
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"The common denominator of everything I saw is that the destruction and the atrocities are not perpetrated by an outside enemy. The starvation, the killings and the destruction in these Arab countries are perpetrated by the same hands that are supposed to protect and build the unity of these countries and safeguard the people of these countries. So, the question now is: Who is the real enemy of the Arab world?"
"[The Arab] Dictators' Atrocities Against Their Own People Are Far Worse Than All The Full-Scale Arab-Israeli Wars"
"The Arabs have wasted hundreds of billions of dollars and lost tens of thousands of innocent lives fighting Israel, which they considered their sworn enemy, an enemy whose existence they have never recognized. [However,] the Arab world has many enemies and Israel should have been at the bottom of the list. The real enemies of the Arab world are corruption, lack of good education, lack of good health care, lack of freedom, lack of respect for human lives. Finally, the Arab world has 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. In the past, we talked about why some Israeli soldiers attack and mistreat Palestinians. Also, we saw Israeli planes and tanks attacking various Arab countries. But, do these attacks match the current atrocities being committed by some Arab states against their own people?
"In Syria, the atrocities are beyond anybody's imagination. And aren't the Iraqis the ones who are destroying their own country? Wasn't it Tunisia's dictator who was able to steal 13 billion dollars from the poor Tunisians? And how can a child starve in Yemen if their land is the most fertile land in the world? Why would Iraqi brains leave Iraq when this country makes 110 billion dollars from oil export? Why do the Lebanese fail to govern one of the tiniest countries in the world? And what made the Arab states start sinking into chaos?
"On May 14, 1948, the state of Israel was declared. And just one day after that, on May 15, 1948, the Arabs declared war on Israel to get back Palestine. The war ended on March 10, 1949. It lasted nine months, three weeks and two days. The Arabs lost the war and called this war the Nakba (catastrophic war). The Arabs gained nothing and thousands of Palestinians became refugees.
"And in 1967, the Arabs, led by Egypt under the rule of Gamal Abdul Nasser, went into war with Israel. They lost more Palestinian land and created more Palestinian refugees who now [depend] on the mercy of the countries that host them. The Arabs called this war Naksah (upset). The Arabs never admitted their defeat in both wars, and the Palestinian cause got more complicated. And now, with the never-ending Arab Spring, the Arab world has no time for the Palestinians refugees or the Palestinian cause, because many Arabs are refugees themselves and are under constant attack by their own forces. Syrians are leaving their own country, but not because of Israeli planes dropping bombs on them. It is the Syrian Air Force which is dropping the bombs. And now, Iraqi Arab Muslims, the most intelligent brains, are leaving Iraq for the West. In Yemen, the world's saddest human tragedy is being written by the Yemenis. In Egypt, the people in Sinai are forgotten.
"Finally, if many of the Arab states are in such disarray, what has happened to the Arabs' sworn enemy (Israel)? Israel now has the most advanced research facilities, top universities and advanced infrastructure. Many Arabs don't know that the life expectancy of the Palestinians living in Israel is far higher than in many Arab states, and that they enjoy far greater political and social freedom than many of their Arab brothers. Even the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip enjoy more political and social rights than [the Arabs in] some places in the Arab World. Wasn't one of the judges who sent a former Israeli president to jail is an Israeli-Palestinian?
"The Arab Spring has shown the world that the Palestinians are happier and in a better situation than their Arab brothers who fought to liberate them from the Israelis. Now it is time to stop the hatred and wars and start to create better living conditions for the future Arab generations."
[1] Arabnews.com, October 6, 2012. The original English text has been lightly edited for clarity.
