05 March 2012 By Tariq Alhomayed When considering much of what is being repeated in
our region, on all levels about Syria, one is struck
by confusion, for one party justifies what is
happening, whilst another casts doubt, and a third
attempts to be clever. Therefore you feel as if you
are looking at a situation that is impossible to
understand, namely an Arab case par excellence, which
is a problem with no solutions, or in the desperate
manner of Nabih Berri, a case where there is no
winners and no losers", which is what I term a case of
political fluidity. This was something that we saw on the day that
Saddam Hussein occupied Kuwait, as well as in Lebanon
on the day that the most senior Hezbollah agents
intentionally incited an unjustifiable war, in
addition to the day that Hezbollah occupied Beirut and
when they invented the concept of the one-third
[parliamentary] blocking minority. This is also
something that we saw in the actions of the Arab
affiliates [of Hezbollah] who consider themselves to
be elites. The same thing applies to Hamas, which
carried out a coup d'ιtat by force of arms, whilst
people justified this and defended them, in the
knowledge that we are facing a unique situation,
namely an armed coup taking place under occupation!
This is certainly an Arab case par excellence, a case
devoid of logic and settlement. In Iraq, al-Maliki
lost the elections but remain in power, whilst in
Lebanon, the member of a [political] trend slanders
his own movement in order to gain power, and we are
told that we are facing a case of "musical chairs."
This indeed represents a flaccid and defeated Arab
case, led by the elites; therefore we are moving from
bad to worse, from Jamal Abdel Nasser to Saddam
Hussein, from Hassan Nasrallah to Bin Laden. This is
not all, for our democracy is deformed, as are our
republics, for they are neither true republics nor
monarchies, and this is something that applies to the
al-Assad regime, both the regime of the father and the
son. Let us pause here in front of this state of mad
dictatorship, and compare it with what Israel has
committed against us in recent times, and I say recent
times as we are talking about the last 5 years,
particularly the Lebanon and Gaza wars. The entire
world rushes to stop Israel's aggressions against
Lebanon in 2006, and this war ended after
approximately two months, claiming the lives of 1,200
Lebanese. The same thing applies to the Gaza war,
which had approximately the same death toll. In both
wars, the public opinion in the Arab world rushed to
take action, whilst counterfeit "friends of Israel"
lists were issued, masterminded by the al-Assad
regime; indeed a number of Arab politicians attempted
to exploit this tragedy, most prominently the al-Assad
regime. However we did not hear anybody ask even now
why did these wars happen? Whose interests did these
wars, and more, serve? Who was responsible for this?
Today, in the case of al-Assad, we have seen the
Syrian forces brutally killing their own people on our
television screens over the past year not two months
whilst the death toll stands at more than 8,000 and
the tyrant of Damascus's troops have destroyed
mosques, tortured and assassinated children, as well
as women and the elderly, simply in order to allow al-Assad
to cling to power. Despite all this, we find some
countries, politicians, media organizations and
figures, who are procrastinating; it is as if we as
Arabs are saying that if the killer is also an Arab,
then this is something that we can accept, however if
he is an Israeli, then we must all move as one to put
an end to this! This is a saddening and shameful state
of affairs, particularly when somebody like Hassan
Nasrallah shamelessly comes out to defend al-Assad!
Therefore, if we compare al-Assad to Israel we will
discover the extent of the growing hypocrisy in our
region, and one of the most important sources of this
is the al-Assad regime, both the regime of the father
and the son, which have survived based on the lie of
the resistance, and others. Therefore, one of the
advantages of the departure of this tyrant will serve
to root out hypocrisy in our region, as its most
prominent symbol is the al-Assad regime. Tariq Alhomayed is the Editor-in-Chief of Asharq
Al-Awsat, the youngest person to be appointed that
position. He holds a BA degree in Media studies from
King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, and has also
completed his Introductory courses towards a Master's
degree from George Washington University in Washington
D.C. He is based in London.
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