Monday, June 02, 2008

A 'crucible' for our faults

Ali Ahmad Al-Baghli
Former Minister of Oil

Sixty years ago, the United Nations (UN) issued a decision to establish Israel as well as divide Palestine into two one part for Palestinians and the other for Jews. After several decades, Arab nations are still against these decisions due to their belief that Palestine should only be for Palestinians similar to what Abdulnasser, Al-Shuqairi and Arafat have demanded in the past. The Arabs lost a six-day war that started on June 5, 1967, they retreated to their borders and rejected a decision to distribute Palestinian lands in 1948. They all cried for the lost lands on the West Bank, Al-Golan and Sinai. The Palestinians and Arabs these days are organizing parties to celebrate what they call a 'calamity' while the Jews rejoice because of construction and development. We hold parties for calamities!

I felt dejected when I realized that 60 years have gone by and nothing happened during the glorious days. Other parts of the world reached the pinnacle of development, particularly in the 20th and 21st centuries, but the Arabs accomplished nothing because we all focused on blaming each other for the negative things happening around us. We all believed some parties are conniving against us. According to the Holy Quran, we are the best nation for the people. Some of us are still living in the magnificent days of the sixth and seventh centuries when Muslims were driven out of Andalusia.

We often blame Israel for our failure to achieve development. Let us then imagine that Israel is not in the region. Would we then be like Malaysia, Indonesia, India or Turkey? I think no. It's so absurd to imagine something like this, not because of Israel but because of our tendency to oppose development or anything that is new.

For instance, North Africa should not be suffering since it is far from Israel. Nations in this part of the world have all the requirements for development in addition to their proximity to Europe, where countries are developed and advanced. However, there is no democracy and development in the Arab nations in North Africa. Why? These nations blame the European colonies for their failure. In other words, if there was no Israel for us to use as a scapegoat, we would invent someone else to blame for our problems.

Email: albaghlilaw@hotmail.com

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