The news near the end of the year and after the beginning of a new one is exactly the same. There is nothing new under the Arab sun, and the news is mostly bad and repetitive, to the extent that I think I have read it before. I challenge any reader to successfully date the important Arab news in the last three days of 2010 and the first three days of 2011. If I were to choose a given subject for the reader and give him news that go back to one month or more ago, he would perhaps think that it is yesterday's news, or last week's at most. What's new in Iraq? Nine months have passed since the elections, and the cabinet is not yet completed. I read in this newspaper and in Al-Sharq Al-Awsat about the security ministries and their candidates, while violence continues, including the assassination of the director of operations for the police. These days, only Muslims are killed, usually at the hands of extremist Islamist terrorist groups. When these find a chance, they kill Christians. After murdering 59 Christians in a massacre at a Baghdad church last year, this year began with a massacre at a church in Alexandria and 21 people were killed. Between the two massacres, scores of Christians were also killed. The terrorists have recanted Islam by murdering people that the Prophet and the Caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab granted peace, and recanted their humanity by targeting innocent people. Two days before the Alexandria disaster, Al-Ahram published an article with the title ‘Islamophobia is a phenomenon that will burn everybody's fingers'. In the same issue, Al-Ahram published an editorial by the Bishop Dr. Youhanna Qalta on the changing nature of violence which can now only be explained by being seen as a tendency for pure evil. Then 24 hours before the disaster, Al-Ahram quoted scholars from Al-Azhar as saying that celebrating the Copts' religious festival alongside them is a religious (Islamic) duty. I now believe that al-Qaeda is Israel's first and most important ally. Al-Qaeda's crimes, terrorist attacks and statements substantiate Israel's claims about the Arabs and the Muslims, and its forgery and lies. All that Israel has to say is: Look at what Muslims are doing to other Muslims and you will see what they would do to us if they have the chance. Do I tell the readers about Lebanese ‘developments'? There are no developments, really. Instead, there is ongoing talk about the political crisis and the indictment by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which is looking into Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination and other assassinations. The March 14 and March 8 groups continue to hurl accusations at one another, and each is waiting for Syria or Saudi Arabia to solve its problems on its behalf. In other words, they are admitting that they are minors that have not yet reached the age of political maturity. While Lebanon and Kuwait are supposedly among the quasi-democratic countries of the Arab world, they are actually both caveats against democracy. Where the Lebanese parliament fails, the Kuwaiti parliament succeeds, as it goes from crisis to crisis and through an ongoing confrontation with the government. For instance, I read that Kuwait is now faced with the possibility of dissolving parliament and that the opposition is stepping up its confrontation. I dare say here that the Kuwaiti opposition places the interests of its members before national interests. Palestinian news is also the same, not only over two years, but also over two, six or even ten decades, and perhaps even a hundred decades if we are to live as long as Lubad, Luqman's eagle. We still read about peace talks and the stalled peace process, the settlements, Israel's crimes, and the murder of one Palestinian or more in Israeli raids on civilian targets day after day. The Palestinian New Year started with the martyrdom of the Palestinian woman Jawahir Abu Rahmeh in Bil'in, when demonstrators were shot with Israeli gas canisters that apparently also contained toxins. Her brother Bassem was also martyred before her, and I hope that I will not hear tomorrow about yet another martyr from this heroic family. Does the reader want other Arab news which he read a week, month or a year ago? South Sudan will vote on secession this week, and President Omar al-Bashir has blamed the political factions for the secession. If I understood correctly, this means that al-Bashir is absolving himself from the mistreatment of the South over the past six years, and from imposing Sharia law on non-religious people or Christians, and also from the death squads and every other calamity. Omar al-Bashir is not responsible for any of this, although he is the president. Going back to Al-Ahram, the newspaper published on 29/12 an article on the lashing of Sudanese women, which mentioned that 43 thousand women were lashed in one year for ‘debauchery', i.e. wearing trousers or using lipstick; this is ‘debauchery'? Sudanese women have a good reputation and are among the purest of women, and it is the corrupt politicians and officials who deserve to be lashed. I told colleague Abdullah Iskandar, as I entered Al-Hayat's building yesterday, that the New Year resembles the outgoing year. He said: I wish. I feel the same. If the nation were a woman, I would have divorced her. However, people cannot divorce their parents, their mothers and fathers, and all they can do is to wait for what's coming, which is even worse. I read some comments in the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Alexandria accusing the ‘Zionist saboteurs' of perpetrating the attack. But this is not the case, because there are those in our midst who are committing crimes on their behalf. I pity those who accused Israel (there were those who accused Iran) because they do not want to believe that such terrorists have emerged from our own ranks. However, this is what happened, and denying so will only exacerbate the suffering and delay or prevent a solution. [email protected]
