Only a few days ago, I wrote in this column that reading the Israeli newspapers would get me agitated, or give me a stroke, due to their racism, hatred and lies against God and his people. However, I can say today that reading the same newspapers over the last few days has saved me prevention from ailment – we say a penny of prevention is worth a pound of care. In the Israeli press, I found some things that might make Arabs like me happy, as the Goldstone Report has left everyone unable to sleep at night, and continues to do so. I went back over some of what I read as well as other information with experts on Israeli affairs, among whom some 1948 Arabs. This is because I did not understand how the danger of becoming agitated and suffering a stroke could move from me to the Israelis, with the mere publication of a report that condemns them. One expert has said that for a long time after the Holocaust, Jews were playing the victim and blackmailing the world. Then came the report by a Jewish judge with an international reputation, turning them from victim into killer or executioner. Palestinians whose land was stolen and who were accused of terror while defending themselves took up the role of victim, in the eyes of the world. The report might end up seeing some Israeli political and military leaders follow Radovan Karadzic to the International War Crimes Court in The Hague, even if they remain on the run for 13 years, like he did. I believe they have taken a decision to not travel outside the country. The report is not the only reason for my contentment when I read. The Israelis had yet to recover from this shock when they found that Turkey and Syria had entered a strategic alliance, and that they were on their way to conducting huge joint military exercises only one day after the news that Israel had been prevented from taking part in maneuvers with Turkey. When the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to office, I wrote that this was the best possible Turkish government, from an Arab perspective, in decades. I asked all Arab states to work positively with the Turkish government and help it stand up at home and abroad. I was not disappointed; relations with the Arabs have developed in very positive fashion; I even heard Turkey's foreign minister, Ahmed Oglu, say that “canceling Israel's participation isn't a punishment, but we are sensitive toward Gaza, East Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Mosque. If these sensitive matters were taken into consideration, we could resume the peace process in the region.” These comments should be made by every Arab foreign minister. Some of them have said such things, and I do not deny this. However, others have entered the cave of forgetfulness, to busy themselves by either counting their money or killing the lice on their heads. The Goldstone report is a slap to Israel's right cheek; the cancellation of military exercises with Israel is a slap to its left; the maneuvers with Syria are perhaps a slap on the neck. Before the Israelis could recover from these successive blows, the Turks managed to deliver a kick to the Israelis' ass via a television serial aired on a state station. The first episode showed Israeli soldiers as murderers, targeting women and children. In one scene, an Israeli soldier is shown kicking an elderly Palestinian man; he then fires at a Palestinian boy throwing rocks. In another, during a battle between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers, civilians are hit by bullets. In another, a woman carrying the body of a relative is screaming at an Israeli soldier, “What do you want from us?” An Israeli soldier chases an innocent Palestinian girl who enters a dead-end street. She turns and smiles at the soldier, and he responds by firing. There is another scene with a Palestinian woman who goes into labor at an Israeli checkpoint. Her husband helps her deliver and holds the boy up; an Israeli soldier fires at him and kills him. The Israeli reaction to this series was as if they did not read the Goldstone report, which recorded similar crimes committed by Israelis, along with other crimes that were not included in the first episode of the Turkish show; perhaps they will appear in later episodes. All of the Israeli commentators said that the series was provocative and would increase hatred; they have all forgotten that the crimes of the Israeli government were sufficient to incite; there was no need for either the UN report or the television show. Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's foreign minister and the former bouncer from Moldova, is sufficiently provocative due to his mere presence. He summoned Turkey's diplomatic representative and upbraided him. After hearing the news of military maneuvers with Syria, he said that Turkey had chosen to get closer to the “axis of evil.” Lieberman is evil himself, and Israel today is the most hated country in the world, not because of a report or a film, but because of what it does, and commits. The situation will not change; the former victim has become a neo-Nazi and the Turkish show will soon arrive at Arab television screens.
