The Nazareth model of Jewish-Arab coexistence
One of the most surprising facts I learned during my visit to Israel was how often people use the word Yallah. I asked my Israeli friends if they know what it means. Few of them knew the origin of the word. I explained to them that the word comes from Ya Allah, which literally means Oh God. I don't need to tell them that Allah is not the 'Jewish' God. The irony is lost on my Israeli friends. For them, Yallah is an Israeli word! Walking through one of the main streets in Tel Aviv, I was surprised to see a billboard that read: "Falafel: National Snack of Israel." Shouldn't the national snack of the Jewish state be Jewish food? I wonder if a person who was born in Israel and who has never visited an Arab country, actually thinks that Falafel was invented in Israel! For a country eager to advance its European/Jewish character, Israel has comfortably taken on the slang and snacks of the Arab world. Iranian threat: You have the wrong picture!
The comments on my first post An Iranian in Tel Aviv were a pleasant surprise. I'll resume that storyline in my next entry. However, in light of the upcoming Iranian elections and the media preoccupation - especially Israel's - with Iran, I want to clarify some points. One cannot read an Israeli newspaper these days without coming across an article on the "Iranian threat." The comparisons between Iran and Nazi Germany are plentiful. It seems as if the whole nation of Israel is bracing for the second Shoah, which is supposedly going to be perpetrated by Teheran. In the Israeli and world press, the subject of the most intense scrutinizing and vilifying is none other than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; the man whose picture is associated with the Iranian threat, and whose hands are allegedly on the "Destroy Israel" button. He is, however, the wrong guy to focus on. There is one person in Iran who is in charge. The entire armed forces and the three branches of the government operate under his guidance. He has complete control over foreign policy in the Islamic Republic, especially national security matters. He is above the law; in fact, he defines what is law. His words are God's words and his commands are considered sacred. This all powerful man is the Supreme Leader of Iran, the Leader of all Shias in the world, His Eminence, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. An Iranian in Tel Aviv
The plane has landed at Ben Gurion Airport and I am trying to prepare myself for what is to come. I am going to be interrogated for several hours. I know this for a fact and I try to think of the questions they will ask and the answers I will give. The very first question, however, surprises me: "Are you Jewish?" I thought they would be more subtle about it. No, I answer, and I'm guided to the 'non-Jew' line. The officer takes a look at my passport, and asks me to wait. After a few minutes, he comes back and asks for my Iranian passport. How do they know I have an Iranian passport on me? Talking about talking
Anyone who has followed the endless, sometimes painfully monotonous, US presidential marathon has most likely heard the three major candidates' positions vis-à-vis Iran - all of whom have unfortunately taken incoherent stances regarding their characterization of diplomatic engagement. The Republican nominee, John McCain, seems to have forfeited his once "maverick" persona in exchange for a carbon copy of George Bush's foreign policy (i.e. not negotiating with "rogue nations" or conversely engaging terrorist organizations). A few weeks ago he pledged that he would be Hamas' "worst nightmare" [1]. In the United States, and in many Israeli policy circles, this popular Palestinian militant group has been incorrectly labeled as an "Iranian proxy". Yet, even if we assume that this oversimplification of complex and endemic Palestinian politics is true, the same John McCain, in 2006, stated that the United States should now "deal" with Hamas, since they had become the elected Palestinian government [2]. Educating journalists about IranMost Iranians, including myself, have grown quite accustomed to the pseudo-intellectual discourse that masquerades as journalism or honest analysis about the countryof Iran. The constant deluge of fabrications, innuendo, and absurdities recycled in the mainstream Western press about what happens within the Iranian nation has grown to the point of sheer science fiction. At times, those of us who are now numb to such stupidity, simply smirk in bewilderment on why the West seems so deluded about what happens within Iran. I suppose this is just emblematic of the larger epistemological malaise that the United States or Europe has entered into concerning Middle Eastern affairs - the debacle that the Iraq War has become and the travesty of Afghanistan clearly points in this direction. The future of US-Iran relations
Realizing that for the first time in American history, the US president had been reduced to the role of Oliver Twist when he recently begged his Saudi counterpart to increase the output of oil is only indicative of the impotent state of the world's sole superpower. And as the American president, resembling a poor orphan boy, grudgingly lifted his proverbial bowl in hopes of an infrequent show of mercy from the jolly, oil-soaked Arab parish beadle, it has become all but appropriate to understand what seven years of a foreign policy based upon a comic-strip view of the world actually accomplishes. Hopping from one Arab despot's lair to another in a farewell tour d'horizon of the Middle East, Bush's promise to "confront" Iran failed miserably- at one point in the UAE., the Sheikh of Dubai seemed so annoyed by Bush's calls to isolate his biggest trading partner, that he hurried one of his minions to fetch a prized desert hawk for his artless Western guest to play with until he boarded his plane. Yet for all extens and purposes, it is time now to understand that the destructive hurricane which was the presidency of George W. Bush is happily coming to an end and more importantly, what the future implications of the US-Iran relationship will look like for his successor. The new realities of the Middle East make it incumbent upon the next American president to talk directly to his or her Iranian counterpart, which most likely will NOT be Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This will mean that the two of them would embark into uncharted territory- having to meet, at some place and time, sit down, and discuss EVERY issue that these nations disagree over. This is a reality that many in the West will have to come to terms with. The neo-con's devotion and disarray
To understand the neo-con, his perception about the world around him, the school of philosophies that shaped his ideology, the doctrines which he holds to be infallible and the blind fortitude which borders on lunacy, it is first imperative to come to terms with the self-image of such a person and how he views himself in relation to the rest of mankind. The neo-con is of the persuasion that he is not only considerably enlightened, as of a divine gift, but truly ahead of his time - a harbinger of illumination to a world void of reason. The neo-con has adopted the sincere belief that he is the archetype of all that is noble, the forbearer of humanity's hopes and aspirations. He dons the image of the guardian of righteousness, the vanguard against corruption and malevolence- modern-day's Jeremiah in a besieged proverbial Jerusalem exhorting his countrymen on the dangers of the neo-Babylonians that surround them. The unreserved allegiance to this unshakable conviction drives the neo-con to not only espouse a foreign policy that has habitually failed in disparate cultures, times, and places, but to deny the very same reality that has spawned from the implementation of such imprudent hypotheses. As Iraq lies in ruins and its capital is currently being ethnically cleansed from all and anything associated with the Sunni persuasion of Islam, and as regional nationalist forces are ripping the war-torn nation into autonomous subdivisions, displacing millions of innocents and introducing a new reality that will have nothing but enduring ominous, consequences for the region at large, the neo-con inanely interprets this as being a "sign" of progress. |
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