Lebanese And Libyan Commentators Debate Reforms in the Middle East

Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar) hosted two commentators, Dr. Samah Idris, editor-in-chief of the Lebanese paper Al-Adab, and Dr. Mayloud Al-Muhandi, the former Libyan Deputy Minister of Education, to discuss the situation in the Middle East. Following are excerpts from the debate:

Dr. Samah Idris: The goal of the comprehensive resistance, and I will explain what I mean by this term comprehensive resistance, is not to defeat the occupation in the sense of destroying and killing it totally, because this is impossible. We cannot wipe out the Americans...This is the subject of our discussion, for example. The purpose is to increase the cost of the occupation, until it cannot go on. The same goes for the other forms of resistance, such as boycott - Your goal is not to close companies, but to increase the cost of their support of the Israeli enemy, so that they change their policies in order to survive.

Dr. Mayloud Al-Muhandi: When the Western or imperialist forces occupied the Arab region... Why don't we trust ourselves?! The imperialist era is over, and there are over 50 million Muslims in Europe. Is any conquest greater than this?! Does this mean surrender?! I think that the Arab communities (in Europe) today, though in various circumstances and conditions...I am for resistance, but not the resistance of slogans or the resistance of hollow political speeches or making the situation look better than it is. We need a new realism that we may not see in our generation, but it will protect the [Islamic] nation in the future.

For the past 50 years, the national Arab program - and I am an Arabic speaker and a son of the Muslim religion - has taken defeat after defeat. The separation between the Arab states has increased. The occupation of Iraq... No one imagined that Iraq would be occupied at the beginning of the 21st century.

To what have these repeated collapses brought us? We import our food. The Arabs are not independent in food production. The scientific forces that graduate are, unfortunately, quantitative, not qualitative, and the quality people emigrate. Another thing - Even those who worked, and are graduates of Arab universities... The Arab society does not provide a scientific atmosphere so the way of thought is not systematic or rational. A final thing - Unfortunately, freedom and democracy, do not exist in Arab societies. This Arab situation... How long will we go on committing suicide? We are on the path to suicide...